The Bachelorette
by Marron B
Summary: Ino enters Sakura into the bachelorette: A competition that has been famous for finding one's soulmate and now there are 10 different boys competing for her affection. Which one will she choose when they are all so equally amazing! SasuSaku ItaSaku DeiSaku HidaSaku NaruSaku SasoSaku GaaraSaku
1. Chapter 1

**So I was working on Turning Twenty and somehow ended up writing this instead.. this always happens :$ **

**Anyways, its basically going to be a story that adapts the concept of the bachelorette, only I've never actually watched it so I have no idea what its like. I'm just going to use the idea of it and twist it around in my own way ;) **

**I haven't decided on a pairing yet for the end but that is what you guys are for :D**

**Also I didn't know what to rate this, I just rated it M to be safe, there will probably be some explicit stuff later on LOL **

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the bachelorette **

* * *

><p>Ino Yamanaka was many things, she was famous first of all and rich of course. She had the A-List life, she was beautiful and probably wanted by men all over the world, yet she didn't have a stable boyfriend. Sure, she had a few one night stands here and there but that was pretty much it, Ino's life was fast-paced, she didn't have time for relationships and such.<p>

Sakura Haruno, quite the opposite. She wasn't exactly famous, nor very rich. She was housemates with Ino, along with being her bestest and closest friend. Sakura was beautiful though, however she frequently compared herself to Ino and made herself feel insecure because of it. She was also not the type to engage in one night stands, but she hadn't a boyfriend as well. So how were these two polar opposite girls best friends then?

Ino sat on the sofa in her living room with a lollipop in her mouth, she boredly watched the TV, Ino never realized how boring it was constantly being at home. Being the model turned actress that she was, she didn't have much free time, although when she did she found herself not being able to figure out what to do with it.

"Hello Ino." Sakura said, taking a seat next to Ino in the living room. Her pink hair was put up into a ponytail and she was wearing glasses, Sakura clutched a textbook in her hand and eyed the lollipop that was moving around in Ino's mouth. "Ino, those are really bad for you, you know."

"Oh hush, Sakura." Ino waved a hand at her pink-haired friend, "you're always going on about that health crap."

"Hm, sorry." Sakura apologized, "I'm going to go finish some homework I have, I'll be down later to make dinner." Sakura smiled, before heading off upstairs to her room where she had been previously. Ino watched her leave, and raised a fine brow, still twirling the lollipop in her mouth.

Sakura and Ino had been best friends since the age of five, they were both twenty-three now and living a fairly decent life. Ino had always wanted to be a model since she could remember, she finally got a big break when she was hired to do a gig. From then on, her fame and stardom rose as did her fortunes. By the time Ino was twenty, she had made more money than she could spend. A little while after her twentieth birthday, Ino decided that she was going to stop modeling for the bad effects of the lifestyle were beginning to catch up to her, and she headed towards acting.

Ino had shot two movies, before she got her big break with the current one she was starring in. It was titled 'A girl can dream right?' and it was about a girl who had been with a fair amount of guys and was going to meet her prince charming for the most part. Now her fame was at the highest level it had ever been, and many places everywhere wanted to hire her. But Ino knew her limit, she wasn't going to take more than one project at a time for she knew it would burden her and cause her stress. Sakura was there to make sure that Ino was not stressed in the lightest.

Sakura had lost her parents at the age of twelve and had been living with Ino and her family since. They raised her like a second daughter, so when Ino moved out to live in the city of Los Angeles, naturally she had brought Sakura with her. Sakura didn't want to be a burden on Ino and accept free money from her like Ino had offered, so she did the next best thing she could do for her. Ino hired Sakura as her assistant, it was Sakura's job to manage all of her bookings, her meetings, tell her about any gigs she may be offered, etc; Sakura was amazing at it, not only that but she went to medical school on the side to become a doctor. She wanted to pay for everything herself and get on her own two feet, but the only thing Ino lacked in her life was a social life.

Sakura almost never went out, she was always busy with school or with managing Ino's schedule, Ino did offer her many days off but Sakura never took them. She stayed indoors and only accompanied Ino to parties that she had to attend, Sakura was never irresponsible, she never thought for herself and never in a million years would she think about being in a relationship with anyone. She simply didn't have the time nor the skills to get one.

Ino wanted to do something for the pinkette, and it was as if at that moment that something clicked in Ino's brain. She threw the lollipop aside and made her way over to the pile of mail that was neatly organized on one of the shelfs by Sakura, there was three piles that Sakura had neatly arranged for Ino to take a look at. There was junk, fanmail and gigs she was offered. Ino rummaged through the pile of gigs and finally found what she was looking for, she returned to her spot on the couch and ripped the letter open.

It was at that moment she recalled that Sakura had mentioned this so called gig a few weeks prior to her, Ino had brushed it off saying it was so typical and stupid of the producers to want to hire her for some crap like this. But maybe it was a blessing in disguise, for not for her but for Sakura.

_Dear Ms. Yamanaka_

_We have sent you this letter to invite you to appear on our newly launched show, we have observed your work and have been highly impressed by what we have seen. Anyways, our show's concept is simple, you will appear and there will be a dozen or so men waiting for you, after introductions and such you will get to know each man, going on dates with them, etc; each round will consist of one elimination, you must eliminate the one you do not choose. By the end, there will be two men left, you must see which of the two is ready to propose to you or commit to you in a relationship and embark on a new journey of love with that person. More about the show will be described in detail when you come to the studio. _

_Please fill out the attached form and reply back to us at the earliest convenience Ms. Yamanaka._

_Thank you._

_Sincerely, _

_Ms. Tsunade Senju_

_Manager and Director of The Bachelorette_

Ino smirked at this and began ripping apart the form that was attached to the letter, there was no way she would do anything like this ever, she knew that they just wanted her to publicize their show and pay her money to fake emotion on it. But she wasn't going to do that, she was going to give them somebody real and hope that if not the love of her life, Sakura would at least gain some experience out of it.

_Dear Ms. Tsunade_

_I am sorry but I am going to have to decline the offer you sent me. It simply is not my style to appear in such shows, however I do have an offer for you. My assistant and best friend Sakura Haruno is interested in starring in this show and I think you should give her this. However, if you do agree to it, I will put forth a few conditions. One of which is that I will not tolerate any sort of defaming of Sakura to appear on television or I do not want anything fake to be aired in this show. I want everything to be a hundred percent real, should you fulfill all my requirements I will pay you in very large increments.. should you not.. then well I think you know what I'm capable of. Anyways, I've attached her form, so if you could get back to me ASAP that would be perfect!_

_Yours truly, Ino Yamanaka._

Ino grinned to herself, and shoved the letter inside an empty envelope. She placed it in the outbox and knew that Sakura would go mail it as soon as humanely possible when she saw it. All Ino had to do now was wait.

* * *

><p>Three weeks later, Ino was beginning to think that the producers of the show had perhaps declined her offer. Until one fateful day, when one of the security guards paged Sakura, who was coming over to Ino.<p>

"Ino? There's someone from the bachelorette at the gate who wishes to speak with you." Sakura stated, the life of a celebrity was tough sometimes, everybody who wanted to come to Ino's house had to be questioned at the gate and only after paging Sakura who asked Ino could they be let inside. Although some people did have special privileges, their friends and family and such.

"Tell them to let them in." Ino answered, grinning. Sakura nodded and mumbled something into the mic, the gate could be heard opening and a few minutes later there was a ring at the door. Sakura instinctively went over to open the door, she greeted the person at the door, who she couldn't help but notice kept eyeing her and led her over to where Ino was.

"Hello Ms. Yamanaka." The lady said, reaching out her hand to the blonde, who stood up to shake it. Ino motioned for her to take a seat cross her, she couldn't help but notice that this woman had a friendly but powerful aura around her.

"I presume you must be Ms. Tsunade?" Ino said, crossing one leg over the other and placing her hands in her lap.

"Yes, Ms. Yamanaka. I am Tsunade Senju, manager and director of the bachelorette." She answered, she was fairly older than both Sakura and Ino, she would have to be at least forty for sure.

"Please, just call me Ino." Ino grinned, "so have you taken my offer into consideration?"

"Although we are disappointed to know that you yourself will not be participating in our show, yes we have taken your offer into consideration." Tsunade began, Sakura who was still standing in the doorway, couldn't help but eavesdrop at the conversation for it intrigued her. "We will accept your offer on the basis of two conditions."

"I'm listening." Ino added.

"One is that we want to take the girl today itself, give her a bit of a touchup, and introduce her to the other contestants."

"That's manageable."

"Secondly... we will agree to your condition that none of this is to be scripted, but we want you to make a guest appearance on it."

"A guest appearance?" Ino repeated, Tsunade nodded. "But if I may add, I feel it would be wiser to have it more towards the end of the show rather than the beginning. For if any of the contestants were to find out that this person is linked to me, they may feel the need only to compete in order to get close to me." Ino stated, Tsunade nodded and opened her mouth to speak.

"That is understandable Ino, very well then, we will have you make a guest appearance towards the end of the show."

"So it's decided then? It's final?!" Ino said with a lot of excitement in her voice.

"Yes. Our next bachelorette will be Sakura Haruno." Tsunade stated, turning in the direction of Sakura. Sakura dropped all of the folders she was carrying and her eyes widened in shock.

"WHAT?!"

"Ehehe.." Ino innocently laughed, "surprise?"

"I-Ino!" Sakura shouted, "I thought that you were... me.. bachelorette?! That's going to be televised isn't it?!" Sakura said in between breaths, "I can't. No, absolutely not."

"You had no idea?" Tsunade said, looking back and forth between the girls. "I can cancel it if you wish, but Ms. Yamanaka, your deposit will not be returned then."

"Deposit?" Sakura raised a brow, "how much did you..?"

"Five Hundred Thousand Dollars." Ino stated, "C'mon Sakura! Just do it! I don't care about the money, but I'm tired of you throwing away your life just like that for me! I want you to do something for yourself, for once!"

"But Ino-"

"Why? Why can't you?!"

"I've never been on TV, how will I..?" Sakura blushed, "or around that many boys.."

"Sakura, you have nothing to worry about. I will be there along with the rest of the crew to make you look fabulous, although Ino had forbidden us from faking any of the scenes, we will still make sure that you can handle everything for perfection."

"Erm.."

"Perhaps if I explain how it works, you will change your mind." Tsunade cleared her throat, "it will be televised from start to finish, there will be camera's pretty much everywhere you go, but for the most part the camera's are placed in various places in the room so you have your privacy."

"Wait a minute.." Sakura mumbled, "everything is going to be televised? Even.. even intimate moments?"

"The camera's will be everywhere except the bathrooms."

"Oh okay.."

"As I was saying, you will meet the other contestants, there are a total of ten other men who will be competing for you affection. As time passes by and you get to know each of the individuals, you may start to like some of them and you may start to not warm up to some of the others. After each round, there will be an elimination, both the votes of the audience and your own preference will be considered and from there, someone will be eliminated."

"W-What rounds exactly? Like what do you mean when you say that?"

"They could go from various things such as we may set you up with various dinner dates, you could participate in a game show to see which of the men knows the most about you. Stuff like that, it varies really."

"I see then."

"So once everyone had been eliminated, we reach the end. Two of the males will be left and we will privately interview each of them and then air it live, they will talk about their feelings for you and the audience will vote on who you should end up with. Ultimately, although the audiences views will be considered, it will be up to the decision of the boys to decide if they want to enter a relationship with you or not, and its up to you too accept." Tsunade paused to take a breath, "I believe that is everything, do you have any questions?"

"Um.. what about work and school?" Sakura said, "I have to manage all of that as well."

"Don't worry about work, Sakura." Ino smiled, "I'll take care of that, and as for school isn't your term over? You just have a term paper to hand in which I already know you finished, and your off for the semester!"

"Well yeah..."

"So do you have any more reasons to object?"

"Well no..."

"Then I will require you to sign a few things and prepare to leave to the resort where everyone will be staying."

Sakura hesitantly read over the papers slowly and signed her name where applicable and handed it back to Tsunade.

"Shall we get going then?" Tsunade asked her.

"B-But I haven't packed.."

"It isn't very far from here, only about a twenty minute drive. You can come back tomorrow to get all of your stuff."

Sakura nodded and Tsunade gave Ino a smile and turned to leave and go back to sit in her car, she awaited for Sakura. Sakura turned to her best friend and sighed.

"I'm gonna kill you." Sakura stated, in the nicest voice she could muster and then turned to leave with Tsunade.

"Love you too! Have fun!" Ino called, and then the car drove off, leaving Ino by herself.

"So is all this going to start today..?" Sakura asked Tsunade shyly, truth be told she was not a shy person, she didn't go out much but she knew how to talk to people well. She just had her shy moments and this was one of them.

"Today we will touch you up and introduce you to the men you will be participating with. The real round doesn't begin until tomorrow."

"Oh I see then.." Sakura said, she didn't know what Tsunade really meant when she said touch up. Sakura didn't think there was anything wrong with her appearance, sure she never let her hair down much, wore any makeup and almost always wore glasses, but she wasn't ugly or anything.. was she?

"We're here." Tsunade said, she opened the door and Sakura followed suite. Tsunade let the way into a gigantic building that said 'Konoha 5 star Resort' on the front, Sakura gasped at the sheer size of this place. Her mouth almost hit the ground in awe at the size of the place once she got inside, she had been to many places over the years with Ino, but this place was just something else.

It looked like it was a castle.

"Hello Lady Tsunade!" A woman with short dark hair said to the woman next to Sakura, "Ah you must be Sakura.. pleasure to meet you, I'm Shizune, the host of this show."

"Oh, hello." Sakura said politely, reaching out a hand for Shizune to shake.

"Sakura, I will lead you to your room. Hinata and Tenten, our makeup and hairstylists will be waiting for you there to fix you up. After that, you will be escorted into the main hall where the men will be waiting to meet you!" Shizune gave her a big grin, she leaned in close to Sakura. "And Sakura? Everything from this moment onwards will be televised." She whispered, giving Sakura another grin. "Enjoy!"

Sakura followed Shizune to her room, she was kind of freaked out a little bit with the feeling that she was being watched. Her every movement would be broadcasted live for everybody to see, but Sakura couldn't deny the fact that she was kind of excited. Losing her parents at an early age, Sakura had to grow up pretty fast despite the care of Ino's parents, it was just never the same. After that, she began being Ino's assistant and before she knew it, her teenage years had just flown by her and she never got to experience even a twinge of romance.

Not that she minded though, she saw how devastated Ino used to be after her various breakups and Sakura definitely did not want to go through with that, but could her prince charming really be one of these men that were just contestants on a reality show? Probably not, Sakura snorted. She wouldn't think too much, nor get too attached to anybody, she would simply see where it would go.

"Here you are. Three oh five." Shizune grinned, "call room service if you need anything. Everything is free for you." Shizune gave a warm smile, "I'll send somebody to get you in about an hour and then you'll meet the boys! Bye!" She said, before darting off in the other direction.

Sakura slowly opened the door to her room and walked inside, it was fairly average sized, there was a bed, a bathroom, a computer and a TV. Sakura guessed that the kitchen was probably separate downstairs or somewhere, made sense.

Two girls sat on Sakura's bed, one had long blue hair up to her waist and the other had brown hair that was put in two buns. Noticing her arrival, they turned their attention to Sakura.

"Erm.. hello." Sakura gave them a warm smile.

"You must be Sakura, then." The brown haired one said.

"Hello Sakura." The other one said, from their tones Sakura could already establish that the brunette was the dominant one, whereas the blue haired one seemed more shy.

"So you girls are probably the hair and makeup stylists?" Sakura asked rather awkwardly.

"Yup, I'm Tenten and this is Hinata." Tenten, the brunette said. "I'll be doing your hair and she'll do your makeup. No offense or anything, but you have no sense of style whatsoever."

"Excuse me?" Sakura said, raising a brow in annoyance. "That's kind of rude, don't you think?"

"Oh I apologize, I didn't mean it rudely. I just mean, living in LA and appearing on the bachelorette, I pictured you different." Tenten said, Sakura still rolled her eyes, because that was still rude.

"T-Tenten...!" Hinata stammered, "sorry Sakura, I-I think what Tenten means is that you are beautiful, but television beautiful is considered w-well.."

"Oh don't worry, I get it." Sakura gave a half smile, "my best friend In-" Sakura froze, she wasn't supposed to let anyone know she was connected to Ino, she knew that. "-my uh best friend in the whole wide world is gorgeous."

"Oh well then, shall we start?" Tenten said, brushing off Sakura's comment. "We set up already in the bathroom, if you can go sit on the chair in there that would be awesome."

Sakura nodded and turned to the bathroom and like Tenten said, sat in the chair that was perched in the middle. There were various hair products and makeup sprawled everywhere along with a hair straightener and a curler plugged into the wall. Tenten and Hinata entered the bathroom, Hinata to her right and Tenten to her left.

"First impressions are everything, so you want to make a good one." Tenten stated, Sakura nodded. "I'm thinking for your hair..." she trailed off, grabbing Sakura's hair gently and from the looks of it she was measuring the length of it. "It's not too long and not too short, what do you think Hinata?"

"Um... i-it may look silly curled and we don't have much time... so we could straighten it? G-Give Sakura a more natural look, w-we don't want to over pamper her on the first day.. w-we can save the curling for a special event."

"Good idea." Tenten smirked, "then it's settled, we'll straighten your hair so that its sleek straight... Hinata, you start on the makeup."

"Right." Hinata nodded, "Sakura? What kind of outfit were you thinking of wearing?"

"Outfit?" Sakura repeated, "Ms. Tsunade didn't really give me time to pack, all I have is the outfit I'm wearing."

"Sounds like Tsunade." Tenten muttered, "well..." she gave an odd look, looking at Sakura's choice of apparel. She was dressed in a white button down dress shirt with black leggings, and a pair of black sandals.

"What?" Sakura said, noticing Tenten's look of disdain. "Oh come on, I was at home minding my business."

"No matter, lucky for you, we came prepared." Tenten smiled, "we have a few outfits with us in the trunk of my car. I'll run and go get them." Tenten said, before darting off out of the room.

"Geez." Sakura grumbled.

"S-Sorry about Tenten.. she's not usually like this, she's a-actually rather nice if you get to know her." Hinata gave Sakura a small smile, Sakura was beginning to like her.

"What? Oh no.. it's alright." Sakura said, although she was lying. She did not like Tenten's attitude of being better than her one bit. Who was she to lecture her on things when she had her hair up in two buns, like c'mon.

"S-So... for your makeup, I'll do light pink on your eyes for it doesn't clash with your eyes and it matches your hair and I can give you some red lipstick to look a little bit bold? A-Aside from that... you'll look flawless." Hinata gave a small blush.

"Thanks, Hinata." Sakura grinned, nobody ever complimented her like that. "I'm glad somebody around here is nice."

Eventually Tenten came back, and in about forty-five minutes, Sakura's makeover was finished.

* * *

><p>"Wow.." Hinata mumbled.<p>

"Gotta say we are good." Tenten added.

Sakura looked at herself in the mirror and couldn't believe her eyes, there she was, really she was no less than flawless. She had removed her reading glasses, so that her bright green full of life eyes were gleaming, they were topped off with eyeliner and light pink eye-makeup that flowed perfectly with her hair. Her hair was down and was so sleek, Sakura couldn't stop touching it. It flowed to just below her breasts and her red lipstick completed her perfect look.

If that wasn't enough, the outfit she was wearing made her look like a curvaceous woman. She wore a black sleeveless tight crop top that showed just a little bit of her stomach with a matching black pencil skirt with black boots. She definitely looked smoking that night.

And then it hit Sakura that she was going to be appearing before ten different guys.

"Oh my gosh, I can't do this." Sakura shouted, "take me home I ca-"

"Sakura stop!" Tenten said, grabbing the pinkette by the shoulders. "You are beautiful, they won't be able to resist, you can do this." Tenten said, "Breath in, breath out." Sakura did as she was told, "now repeat after me, you can do this."

"I-I can do this." Sakura said, "I can do this." She repeated, with less hesitation in her voice.

"Let's go." Tenten said, giving a smirk. She opened the door and led the way to wherever they were going. Sakura took a deep breath and just kept telling herself she could do this.

"Oh wow." Tsunade said, when she saw Sakura. "I'm glad I made the right choice in hiring both of you." She said to Tenten and Hinata.

"Thank you, ma'am." Hinata said.

"Sakura, you look stunning." Tsunade said to Sakura.

"T-Thank you." Sakura said, she hadn't meant to stutter, but she had gigantic moths swirling in her stomach due to nervousness she couldn't help it.

"Don't be nervous." Tsunade said soothingly, it kind of reminded Sakura of her mother. "It'll be easy."

"Sure.." Sakura said, giving a fake smile.

"This is how it works, you will be sitting on one of the chairs in the room and one by one Shizune will introduce the boys into the room. One boy will come from one side and then exit the other side, until you have met all the men, am I clear?" Tsunade said. "Okay, there's your queue, good luck!" Tsunade said, giving Sakura a little bit of a push so that she was stumbling into the hall. It didn't look so bad to Sakura now, there was one seat on one side and then on the other and Shizune sat in the middle, she was facing another wall, which Sakura presumed had a camera in it.

"Hello Sakura!" Shizune said, standing up to give Sakura a hug. "Please, be seated." She said, motioning for Sakura to sit down on the chair. Sakura did so and gave Shizune a small smile, she fidgeted with her hands, brushing a stray piece of hair out of her face.

You couldn't even tell that they were being recorded, it was almost like they weren't which made Sakura ten times easier, she had pictured there to be a billion cameramen in the room with her, but it was just Shizune and Sakura. What a relief.

"Now.." Shizune started, "everybody welcome to this years show of the bachelorette. As you know in the previous season, our bachelorette was Temari S, and she ended up with the contestant Shikamaru. Where are they now you must be wondering?" Shizune paused for dramatic effect, "engaged! Temari is also pregnant we wear! The magic of this show... undoubtedly. The matches are always perfect." Sakura wondered if that were true, "now... this year's bachelorette is Ms. Sakura Haruno. Sakura, could you tell me a little bit about yourself?"

Sakura knew how to do this part, she did it a thousand times over when scheduling things for Ino.

"I'm Sakura Haruno." Sakura paused, "I'm twenty-three, I'm in medical school, studying to be a doctor hopefully someday. I'm from Carolina, I moved to LA a few years ago umm..." Sakura trailed off, "I live with my best friend, and my favorite color is pink, naturally."

"Wonderful, what a beautiful soul." Shizune said, Sakura was absolutely sure she was just being fake for the camera, she doubted that's what Shizune actually thought of her. "Now Sakura, why did you choose to compete on the bachelorette?"

Oh crap.

Crap. Crap. Crap.

Is my best friend tricked me into it a suffice enough answer?

Think Sakura...

"My best friend sent my entry in as a sort of surprise for me, heheh.." Sakura blushed, Shizune nodded and said a bunch of other crap which Sakura tuned out of.

"Now.. we've met our bachelorette this year, let's meet our lovely contestants!" Shizune said, Sakura gave a smile when she looked her way but that was about it. "Alphabetically order, up first we have Deidara, I hope I pronounced that right."

Sakura gave a fake smile and looked to where the spotlight shinned, a boy who was definitely much taller and older than Sakura emerged from there. He had long blonde hair which was partially tied in a ponytail, one of his eyes were covered, but what Sakura could see of his other eye, it was blue. He held a smirk as he entered the room, he was dressed in long black coat. He kind of reminded her of Ino.

"Welcome." Shizune said with a smile to the blonde, "please take a seat."

"Thank you, un." The guy named Deidara sat down on the seat closest to Shizune, directly across of Sakura. He looked at Sakura, their gaze met and she instantly looked away, and blushed a faint pink, he smirked at that.

"Deidara please tell us about yourself." Shizune said to the blonde.

"Sure, un. I'm twenty-six, aspiring artist and I love my women." The blonde stated, 'oh great' thought Sakura, 'he's a self-conceited proud jerk, definite no-no.'

"Artist? Hm, sounds very interesting. What do you think of Sakura?" Shizune asked him, Sakura blushed a little more at the way Shizune said that, gosh did she really have to be so blunt?

"So this is Sakura...hmm.." Deidara started, placing his hand on his chin. "I would have to say that she is.." He paused, staring at her. She crossed her arms and looked away, clearly not used to this kind of behavior from men. "... Absolutely gorgeous." He stated.

"How romantic." Shizune said with a sigh, "I'm already rooting for you both."

Sakura snuck a glance at Deidara and noticed that he had now crossed his legs and was smirking at her, almost as if she was inferior to him.

"Okay, next we have.. Gaara!" Shizune called, Sakura turned her attention again to the area where Deidara had appeared from and this time there was a red head, he slowly walked over to where they were and took a seat next to Deidara. He had lots of eye-liner from the looks of it on his eyes, his expression seemed very cold and unlike Deidara, he didn't so much as glance at her.

"Whoa." Sakura heard Deidara say, he shifted a little bit so that he wasn't sitting as close to Gaara. Sakura noticed as well that he wasn't very friendly looking, he crossed his arms and finally turned to look at her. She flinched a little bit when he did, and then he looked away, almost as if he was expecting her to do so.

"Well then.. Gaara, where are you from? How old are you? Some details about yourself?" Shizune asked the red-head.

For the first couple of minutes nobody answered, Sakura felt like the silence was going to kill her.

"I am Gaara, of the desert. I am twenty-three years old." He stated, Shizune sweat dropped.

"Well okay then.." Shizune said, she decided not to ask him anymore questions, seeing as he wasn't responding much anyways. "Next, we have Hidan."

A loud thud was heard in the direction where Gaara and Deidara had emerged from, the trio turned their heads to look at the source and there was a man with sleek platinum hair, a giant scythe in his hand and he wasn't wearing a shirt. Just black cargo pants, and shoes, that is all. Sakura would admit that he was pretty attractive, okay he was really attractive, but he seemed like a lunatic. The way he walked in, with a scythe?

"Erm.. Hidan, weapons are not prohibited.." Shizune said with a awkward laugh.

"It's not real, you fuc.." He muttered the last part so that it was inaudible, he took a seat next to Gaara and shifted his gaze over to me. "Whoa, damn bitch." He whistled, "you, Sakura?" I nodded, "damn, this is gonna be fun."

Sakura didn't know whether I should be flattered or scared.

"Erm, okay.. n-ne-" Shizune started, but was interrupted.

"Wait a minute, you not gonna ask me anythin'?" Hidan asked her, "dumb bitch."

"A-Ah... Of course!" Shizune stammered, "t-tell me-"

"I know the drill, woman." Hidan growled, "I'm Hidan, thirty-one, from LA, don't got much else to say."

"Okay... if you're done then.." Shizune said hesitantly, noticing that he didn't say anything she continued. "Next is... Itachi Uchiha."

A man with long black haired tied back in a lose ponytail emerged from the curtains, he politely sat down and greeted Shizune. What stood out to Sakura was how expressionless and calm he seemed, he was absolutely stoic to everything going around him, he look at her and then looked away. His eyes lingered for a brief second.

"Itachi Uchiha... Of Uchiha Co.." Shizune said dreamingly, "I know a lot about you."

"I'm honored." Itachi said in a monotone, Sakura snuck a few glances at him and blushed. He made all the previous boys look like crap and they were all very attractive for the most part. He also seemed polite, but not completely isolated like Gaara.

"Now Itachi, we know about you already. You're thirty, your father is the president of Uchiha Co, you are the CEO and your..." Shizune trailed off naming some other nonsense about him, but Sakura had been too entranced by the beauty of the Uchiha. She wanted him, yep she definitely wanted him.

"Yes that's right." Itachi said.

"W-Well then... we'll move onto the next contestant, we have Kiba Inuzuka." Shizune stated. An average looking boy with two red triangles painted on either side of his cheek entered the room, he took a seat next to Itachi and smiled at Shizune and then at Sakura.

"Hey." He said.

"Kiba Inuzuka, tell me about yourself." Shizune asked intriguingly, Sakura assumed that she had no information on him. This boy was average looking, nothing special. He seemed friendly enough, but Sakura kept sneaking glances at Itachi. Why hadn't she wanted a boyfriend again?

**Get yourself together, woman! **Her inner Sakura said to her, **we have to show these boys whose boss remember! Can't fawn all over them like this! **Oh be quiet, Sakura said back to her, just let me enjoy this. **You idiot... don't come crawling back to me when you get hurt, remember how Ino was?! **That's right... I must not lose my composure.

Sakura realized that she had tuned out of Kiba's introduction, Shizune was now introducing the next boy. Sakura didn't know if this was a joke or not, but she cringed at the sight of the man.

He was...

It was..

Was it even a he?

IT WAS A SHARK!

"Kisame." Shizune stated, "welcome."

"Pleasure." Kisame grinned, before sitting down. 'So it could talk..' Sakura thought to herself.

"Please stay away from me.." Sakura said, thinking she had thought it to herself.

"Excuse me?" Kisame said, raising a brow.

"H-Huh?" Sakura said, blushing. Everybody's attention was now on her, she blushed even redder and hid her face. "I um.. I just s-"

"Shut up, I heard you." Kisame muttered, "rude."

Sakura felt kind of bad now, she hadn't meant to say it out loud, she had just never seen a shark that could walk and talk.

"Uh okay.. next we have Rock Lee." Shizune said, forgetting to ask Kisame for an introduction. Add that to poor Kisame's embarrassment.

Sakura didn't have time to react when flowers were thrust forward into her face, she couldn't even see who the sender was. She blushed and accepted them, and then she saw who had given them.

"Hello, beautiful girl." A boy in a green speedo, with a bowl cut that looked like it had tons of gel in it said to her. "I am Rock Lee, and I will make you mine." He declared.

A snort of laughter could be heard in the direction of Deidara and Hidan, even Kisame let out a chuckle.

"You can't be serious right, un?" Deidara laughed.

"Laugh at me now, but when I emerge victorious you will think otherwise." Rock Lee said, sitting down next to Kisame.

"That was unexpected." Shizune said, "anyways since he kind of introduced himself, I'll get to the next person. Next we have, Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto? Sakura repeated in her head, she knew that name. True enough, she looked in the direction where the previous boys had come from and there he was, the blonde that Sakura had grown up with! He had been one of her closest friends prior to moving to LA!

"Sakura!" Naruto called, taking a seat across her. "Wow, it's been so long hasn't it?!"

"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed, "I can't believe you're here?!" Sakura said even louder, oh what a relief it was to see somebody she knew.

"Yeah you too! I never imagined when they said Sakura, it would end up being you!" Naruto gave her a big grin.

"Ahem.." Shizune said, "Naruto? I'm sorry but we're running out of time, so I won't be able to give you a proper introduction." She paused, "we have two more contestants left, Sasori is next."

Sakura turned her head in the all knowing direction and there was another red-head, he had softer eyes than Gaara though, his were teal. He looked so innocent and unmoved by everything, Sakura blushed at the sight of him.

'Whoa, get yourself together girl.' She thought to herself, Sasori took a seat next to Naruto and gave her a small smile.

"Hello." He said to her, rather than to Shizune.

"Um.. hi." Sakura said.

"Hello Sasori." Shizune interrupted, Sakura had wanted to get to know more about him but Shizune had said there was no time. "Our last guest: Sasuke Uchiha."

Sakura's jaws absolutely dropped at the person standing before her. It was her other friend, Sasuke. Truth be told she used to have a crush on him when she was younger, but seeing as he was so closed off to everyone and the fact that she moved to LA, she gave up on him.

He looked pretty much the same, he was unmoved and emotionless and took the last seat.

"And that folks is our group of contestants this year." Shizune grinned and said to nobody in particular, "thank you all for your introductions. You have the remainder of the night to do as you please."

* * *

><p><strong>So what did you think? I know the intros got kind of boring and long, but I'm going to jump straight into romance next chapter LOL .. also just FYI some of the characters will be kind of OOC..<strong>

**ADDITIONALLY ..**

**When I mention the audiences votes in the story, I do mean you guys :D **

**I want you all to vote for the pairing you want and the pairing you don't want. I will definitely take it all into account when decided who is to be eliminated each round and who ends up with Sakura.**

**Review Fav and Follow **

**Thanks guys!**

**-MarronB**


	2. Chapter 2

**So I couldn't wait to start this story so I updated already hahha .. anyways I love your guys reviews! I can't wait to really get into this story.**

**DiizGiirlJess: Haha no I've never watched it :P I'm just hoping to use some of the concept of it.**

**NinjaRace: Yeah I know it did get quite long haaha I get carried away sometimes :P **

**I've taken all your votes into account as you can see later in this chapter :) **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor the bachelorette**

* * *

><p>As soon as Shizune dismissed them, Sakura bolted out of the room and ran straight upstairs to her room before someone could stop her. She panted and headed towards the bathroom, looking at her reflection in the mirror.<p>

"I can't do this..." She breathed to herself, she was trying to keep calm during the entire thing, and she had managed to keep her composure, but when she saw Sasuke something had definitely snapped inside of her. How could she compete in this thing with Sasuke as one of the contestants?

A knocking at the door broke Sakura out of her thoughts and she stared at the door with nervousness and disdain. Sakura quietly walked over to the door and placed her eye on the eyehole so she could see who was on the other side. It was the red-head, she couldn't see his face so she couldn't tell if it was Gaara or Sasori.

Reluctantly she opened the door and quickly looked around the hallway to see if Sasuke was anywhere in sight. Sakura did not want to think about Sasuke right now, she always tried to block him out of her memory. It was something she simply did not want to think about.

"Hello, Sakura." Sasori said in his unfazed voice, he had this gaze that made it seem like he was staring through you rather than staring at you. Sakura gave him a forced smile and invited him inside, he followed her into her room and she shut the door behind him.

"What brings you here?" Sakura asked the red-head, now that she got a closer look at him, she noticed that his eyes were in fact brown and not teal as she had thought previously. Sakura tried to pass herself off as calm and composed, though she doubted that was convincing.

"You ran off quite quickly, I just wanted to make sure you were alright." Sasori said to her, he gave her another unmoved stare. Sakura could already establish that he was a nice and caring individual, he just didn't seem affected by the things going on around him, nothing fazed him.

"O-Oh..?!" Sakura stammered, "I'm fine!"

"Your eyes tell me otherwise." He started, "your eyes are darting back and forth between me and the door, you are worried about something. Your hair is also uncharacteristically messy, I'm going to assume you ruffled it in frustration and from the way your nose and cheeks are faintly red, I can conclude that you have been crying or have been about too." Sasori said, Sakura raised a brow and sweat dropped. How the heck could somebody establish that just by looking at her, now she didn't know whether she liked him anymore.

"Um...?" She began, unsure of what she was going to say. "Your wrong, and even if you-"

"Sakura, I'm going to ask you again. Tell me what is wrong?" Sasori asked her, "as your future life partner, I must know."

Now Sakura was a bit divided here, half of her was in awe at how sweet he was caring about her and wanting to know what was wrong. But the other half of her, the more dominant side clenched her fists in anger at how somebody could just barge into her life and assume they know everything about her.

"Get out!" Sakura growled, pointing towards the door.

"Very well then." He gave her another unfazed look and turned to leave the room, Sakura felt a little bit guilty now, he had come all this way just to see if she was alright.

"Wait." She muttered, closing her eyes because she knew she would regret this. "Sit." She sighed, pointing towards the bed. Another unfazed look and he sat down, Sakura sat opposite him.

"..."

"I'm just stressed out about all of this." Sakura said, well she wasn't really lying although that wasn't the reason she had ran away earlier, she was quite stressed. "How am I supposed to trust anybody here and know that they are being real with me?"

"True enough, that is somewhat of a dilemma." Sasori said, "but as time passes by, you will know. Those that are real are quite different from those that are fake."

"Easier said than done." Sakura snorted, she crossed her arms and shook her head. "You shouldn't be here, I promised myself I wouldn't get attached to anybody."

"Hm, I suppose." Sasori said, getting up from the bed and turning to leave. "I look forward to getting to know you better, Sakura." He said, while shutting the door shut behind him.

Sakura stared at the door for a while, she wanted to believe that Sasori was a nice person who did truly care about her, but she couldn't conclude that just yet. She had just met him and she saw what Ino went through all those times with the breakups, she was not going to go through that. Deciding that she had, had enough for one night Sakura shut the lights off and crawled into bed after discarding her clothes.

_Tomorrow.._

* * *

><p>Sakura woke up to the sun shining down on her face, she stretched forgetting just about everything for a moment. Then it dawned upon her that she was not in her comfortable bed at home but rather in the hotel room.<p>

Sakura slowly got out of bed and did her morning routine: brush, shower, and change into her clothes. Brand new clothes which had magically appeared in her closet, Sakura rolled her eyes and pulled out some decent clothing which included leggings and a casual t-shirt. She put her hair in a bun and headed outside to the kitchen to get something to eat.

She got in line at the kitchen to get something to eat, there was a tall figure in front of her, towering over her. She grimaced when she saw who it was.

"Oh.. hello." Sakura said timidly.

"Hmph." The other person said, turning away from her when he noticed it was her.

"I'm sorry!" Sakura apologized, "I didn't mean to say what I said! It just sort of slipped out... you know like one of those things you want to keep to yourself, but they slip-"

"Save it." He grumbled.

"But, sharky..!" Sakura said, a vein appeared on the shark's forehead and he turned around and pointed an accused finger at her face.

"What did you just call me?!" He growled, completely in her face now.

"Sharky..?"

"My name is Kisame Hoshigaki, and I'll have you know that I am one of the strongest men in the world."

"Mhmm." Sakura snorted, crossing her arms.

"Pfft." He also crossed his arms, "without that makeup and the tight fitting clothes, you aren't that beautiful."

"What?!" Sakura growled, this time in his face with the accusing finger.

"What's going on over here?" A masculine voice said from behind Sakura, she turned around to be face to face with her man crush: Itachi. Sakura instantly turned a little pink and looked away, fidgeting with her fingers.

"O-Oh..um, nothing.." Sakura mumbled, avoiding his gaze.

"This girl called me a shark, Itachi!" Kisame complained to said man.

"Wait, you guys know each other?" Sakura said, raising a brow.

"Yes, we both graduated from the same high school." Itachi answered, Sakura blushed again noticing he was talking to her. Great, she was like a stupid schoolgirl fawning all over the hottie.

"Don't change the subject." Kisame roared, interrupting the moment Sakura was having with Itachi.

"Oh, suck it you shark." Sakura snorted, before pushing past Kisame and grabbing an apple then heading back to her room.

"Why that girl..." Kisame clenched a fist.

"She's interesting." Itachi said, looking in the direction where Sakura was stomping away from them.

* * *

><p>A little whilst later there was a considerate amount of banging on Sakura's door, and there stood Tenten and Hinata. They told her that the next round would be starting soon and they were ordered to make her look perfect.<p>

"You seem a little off today, something up?" Tenten asked her, Sakura shook her head no. They decided not to pursue the issue any longer and only asked her work related questions after that.

"So what type of style should we do today?" Hinata asked, Sakura shrugged.

"Anything you think will suit me, really." Sakura answered, Tenten crossed her arms and raised a brow.

"Look I don't know what's up with you, but can you cut the crap and just be cooperative?" Tenten said.

"Ten-"

"I am cooperative." Sakura answered, "I told you to do whatever, I don't care."

"Mhmm." Tenten rolled her eyes and began working on her hair.

By the time the pair had finished, Sakura had her hair up in a high ponytail with light barely noticeable makeup and some nude lipstick. It was a natural but flawless look, the only thing it was missing was a smile.

"Sakura..." Hinata began, "please tell us what's wrong. You don't seem like yourself."

"Hinata, please." Sakura raised a hand, "just leave me be."

"Well we're going to get in trouble if you don't show up out there with a smile." Tenten exclaimed.

"This is all Ino's fault, she's the actress, not me, I can't do this!" Sakura buried her head in her hands.

"I-Ino?" Hinata repeated, "do you mean... Ino Yamanaka?"

"Oh crap." Mumbled Sakura, no point in lying now. "Yeah, she signed me up for this after she rejected the offer herself."

"Oh boy." Tenten tugged at her collar, "so you're down because you don't think you can do this?"

"Partially... but.." Sakura paused, could she really trust these two, Ino had always told her not to trust anybody in LA, oh what the hell. "The thing is one of the contestants, Sasuke Uchiha... I used to be head over heels in love with him, I think for almost seven years and then..."

They listened intuitively.

"... He just changed one day. He stopped being friends with Naruto and me and just changed.. he joined the popular group that made fun of all of us and that was it. A few months after that I moved here with Ino and never saw him again.." Sakura paused, "I know its stupid, but it just hurt to see him after all this time. Especially the way we met too, I mean.."

"Oh, Sakura." Hinata said sympathetically.

"That must be rough, having to be separated from the guy you like, like that and him totally betraying you and then years later having to see him in a situation like this." Tenten summarized, "rough."

"Yeah that's not all of it.." Sakura said, "the people that Sasuke began hanging out with always used to tease me and call me names like whore or slut, and well.. I mean doesn't this situation make it see-"

"Sakura, just stop!" Tenten interrupted her mid sentence, "stop giving a damn about what those immature assholes think. We know you aren't a whore, and I mean you know you aren't and that's what matters right?" Tenten said with a reassuring smile.

"Tenten's right, S-Sakura.. you're better than he is, d-don't let him get to you." Hinata said with another reassuring smile.

Sakura didn't know what possessed her to do it, she had just met these girls after all, but she pulled them both into a big hug.

They gave her a vibe that reminded her of Ino.

* * *

><p>"Welcome everyone, welcome!" Shizune said, giving everybody a hug as they entered the hall. The seats were just like they had been yesterday, Sakura was on one side, Shizune in the middle and the boys on the other end. "Now I hope everybody got plenty of rest!"<p>

"You bet, bitch!" Hidan called from the group of them.

"Erm alright.. so anyways, we got a lot of hits from this show! There's already requests for certain pairs based on the chemistry the audience saw!" Shizune exclaimed, "let's see the chart now.." She said, pressing a button, a screen appeared behind her head and everybody turned to see it.

_Audience Popularity.._

_Sasori: 1st place_

_Itachi and Gaara: 2nd place_

_Sasuke, Naruto: 3rd place_

_Lee: 4th place_

"What, un?!" Deidara exclaimed, standing up from his seat. "Where's my name?!"

"Well no one voted for you so.." Shizune started, but he was paying her no mind.

"What?! How could no one vote for me, un?!" He crossed his arms, "I complemented her right when I met her."

"Erm yeah well-"

"Forget about you, where the fuck is my name?! Everyone know's I'm the best looking guy here." Hidan shouted, Shizune flinched for she did not want to say anything and have to deal with his cursing. "Pfft, stupid fucking viewers, don't even vote for me."

"Well um.. now that we're done.." Shizune whispered hesitantly, "clearly the viewers want Sakura with Sasori, Itachi or Gaara so far. But they may change their minds, after all it is up to Sakura." Shizune winked, "anyways aside from that the first round will begin today."

"Bring it!" Naruto exclaimed from his seat.

"So as you all know that when you meet somebody new, you get to know them before anything else to see if they click with you." Shizune started, "what we are going to have is a series of speed dates. Just a quick two minute session you get with Sakura to talk about yourselves and what not and see if you click. At the end of it, Sakura will determine who she felt connected to and who she didn't. She will then choose who she eliminates."

'Oh great, no pressure or anything.' Sakura thought to herself.

"Great!" Shizune exclaimed, getting up from her seat. "Now if you all could just follow me into the other room, I will send one of you in at a time and you will do as we instructed."

The guys all formed into a line and followed Shizune out of the room, Sakura nervously fidgeted in her seat. 'Okay, no big deal, all I gotta do is figure out which one I don't click with. Shouldn't be so hard.'

"Remember, two minutes!" Shizune called from behind the curtain.

Sakura heard a beep and the first to walk in was none other than Kiba, the boy with two red marks on his cheeks. He gave Sakura a toothy grin and sat down opposite from her.

"You look different from yesterday." Was the first thing that he said to her, she clenched her fists and furrowed her brows.

"I what?!" She growled.

"You looked so unrealistic yesterday, I definitely like this version much better, you look natural." He said, Sakura didn't know whether that was a compliment or not but she took it as one.

"Well thanks, I think. So um.." She started, but couldn't find anything to say.

"What do you do for fun?" He asked her, starting up the conversation. She listed a bunch of things as did he and they just had forced chatter for the remainder of their time. Once the beep came, Kiba gave her another grin and walked off.

Sakura would admit that he was nice and knew how to keep a conversation going, but he wasn't something she was really interested in right now. Maybe she would keep him around as a friend, she put him in the maybe pile.

Next came Itachi, and as always, Sakura began blushing. Oh she definitely knew she wasn't going to disqualify him anytime soon, in fact even the audience wanted to see them together.

He sat down across the pinkette, and held his hand out to her, there was a single rose in it.

"Oh, thank you." Sakura said, taking the rose and blushing.

"I must say there is something about you that is absolutely stunning." Itachi said to her, making her turn from pink to red. "Father originally entered me in this competition and I had absolutely no interest in it, but after seeing you here my mind changed."

Sakura's blindness by her infatuation with him was beginning to make her forget that he may just be saying this for the sake of television, someone as beautiful as Itachi couldn't be fake.

"Sakura? Are you alright?" He asked her, placing a hand on her forehead to see if she was alright. "You're a little bit hotter than normal."

"You're hot." Sakura blurted out, then instantly covered her mouth. "I-I mean.."

*BEEP*

Itachi gave her a smile before heading off, she swore she saw a smirk on his face. 'Oh damn it all, Sakura.' She thought to herself.

Naruto came next, he walked in with a huge grin on his face and sat across her.

"I still can't believe that the bachelorette turned out to be you." Naruto grinned, "I mean its just so funny."

"Yeah I know.." Sakura gave a grin, "the odds of seeing you here.. and Sasuke too, I wasn't expecting that."

"Sakura." Naruto said in a serious tone, "we'll talk after." He said, Sakura nodded and gave him a weak smile. They didn't chat much other than that.

Naruto left and Gaara emerged, he wore that same face he always did, sat down across Sakura and said nothing.

Sakura fidgeted a little bit, unsure of what to say to him. Truth be told he kind of scared her, he always looked like if you were to talk to him he would kill you with his stare. Sakura thought that everyone deserved a chance though and Gaara was no different, she would start the conversation this time even though she sucked.

"Um Gaara? What do you like to do for fun?" Sakura said awkwardly, mustering a smile.

"..."

Okay he didn't answer her, maybe he hadn't heard.

"Erm, Gaara?"

"You're irritating." He stated.

"What?!" Sakura growled, "why did you enter this competition then?!"

"To see what woman was the best of the best that had to be offered." Gaara stated, "the bachelorette needs to reevaluate their standards."

"Why.. you!" Sakura clenched a fist and before she knew what she was doing she was aiming a punch at his cheek. Sakura didn't know how it happened but she had ended up on the floor, with Gaara's face inches away from her face. Sakura took this time to notice his features, he was fairly good-looking he just looked so isolated and so alone, Sakura blushed noticing how close they were.

"Never try that again." He said in a low tone, low enough for only the two of them to hear, low enough just so that the camera's couldn't hear. Sakura gulped, 'where was that damn beep' she thought to herself.

"S-Sorry.." Sakura whispered, he slowly got off of her and she quickly got up as well. The beep finally sounded and Gaara was off, not looking back.

**Arghhhh what a jerk! **Inner Sakura said in her head, **we'll show that jerk whose boss! Just watch! Cha!**

Next came Deidara, he was walking over to Sakura with that same smirk he always wore, Sakura crossed her arms in annoyance. He was very good looking, she just wasn't exactly attracted to his obnoxious personality.

"Hello, beautiful, un." Deidara said, grabbing her hand and placing a kiss on it.

"Hey, yourself." Sakura said, snapping her hand away from him.

"Ouch, feisty, un." He said, placing a hand on his chest and pretending to be hurt. "What did I do to deserve that?"

"I don't know." Sakura said with a hint of attitude, she crossed her arms again as well as her legs this time.

"Give a chance, I actually kind of like you already, un." Deidara said, smirking again.

"You don't even know me." Sakura snorted.

"I'll get to know you, un."

"Then how can you say you like me?"

"I just know, un."

That continued for a while before the beep sounded again, Deidara gave her one last smirk before leaving. Okay, so maybe he was kind of charming, totally obnoxious but charming nonetheless.

The next to come was Hidan, Sakura sweat dropped. He made Deidara look modest, he took a seat on the couch and placed his legs on the table in between Sakura and himself.

"So, what do you wanna talk about?" Hidan said casually, "or should we get straight to the fucking."

"The what?!" Sakura shuddered and turned a deep red, she pictured herself with Hidan doing all sorts of dirty things.. he was definitely sexy as hell, Sakura wouldn't mind doing that. No wait, yeah she would this was her virginity for gods sake!

"How many guys have you done it with?" He said with a grin, "I've fucked more girls than I can count."

"Um.. I.." Sakura then remembered this would be broadcasted on television and shook her head, "that's none of your business!"

"Sakura." Hidan said seriously all of a sudden, "are you a virgin?"

"H-Huh...?" Sakura was red as a tomato, no guy had ever asked her something like that. How was she supposed to tell Hidan that she hadn't so much as ever kissed a boy. "U-Uh.." Then she remembered something Ino had said once of not falling short of who you are and she clenched her fist and found the courage to blurt out, "yeah, I am! Got a problem?!"

"Jackpot!" Hidan yelled, punching a fist in the air. "Sakura-"

*BEEP*

"Shut the fuck up, I'm not done!" He growled.

"U-Uh Hidan?" Shizune said emerging from the corner, "y-your turn is over.." she mumbled.

"Fucking bitch." He said in annoyance, but nonetheless complied and went out of the hall. Sakura sighed, could this be over and done with so she could leave already.. just four left, she thought to herself.

Sharky was the next to arrive, he scowled when he saw Sakura and crossed his arms and looked the other way as did Sakura. They were both clearly still angry and offended by what had transpired earlier.

"I hate you." Sakura muttered.

"I hate you more." Kisame muttered back.

"No I do."

"No, I DO!"

"I do!"

"No, me!"

"I do!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"You said I wasn't even that great looking!"

"You called me a shark!"

"You are a shark!"

"You aren't that great looking!"

"Why you..!"

That continued for the remainder of the time and Kisame got up and left before the beep had finally sounded.

Lee was the next to walk over to Sakura, like the previous day he presented Sakura with flowers, Sakura gave him a hesitant smile. She wasn't sure if Lee was really her type, he was nice and she admired him for his efforts.. but.

"Sakura! You are even more beautiful than yesterday!" Lee exclaimed.

"Thank you, Lee." Sakura said, blushing at the compliment. "Lee-"

"Say no more, I do not wish to waste my time with words when I have given you flowers which are much more beautiful than any words I could ever muster!" Lee exclaimed, "Farewell beautiful!"

"Uh, bye.." Sakura said, waving a hand as he left. 'Okay just two more..' Sakura thought to herself, next to walk on stage was non other than Sasuke. "Fuck.." Sakura mumbled.

"Hello, Sakura." He said, sitting across her. Sakura furrowed her brows and stared long and hard at him. He was so similar to what he looked like then, but his features had definitely matured, he was much taller, much more built and his face had aged. His eyes were the same though, cold and closed off like always.

"Sasuke." Sakura said, "it's been a while."

"It has. Ten years?"

"Yeah, eleven." Sakura mumbled, "how have you been..?"

"Well, hn. Father entered Itachi and I in this, hoping for one of us to get married." Sasuke told her, Sakura gasped, how could she have forgotten that Itachi was Sasuke's brother?!

"I see.. how is.. Karin?" Sakura said, grinding her teeth at the mention of Karin's name. Karin was apart of the new group of friends that Sasuke had left Sakura and Naruto for.

"I don't know, I don't speak with her anymore." Sasuke told her, "we lost touch many years prior."

"I see.."

"Sakura-"

"Save it." Sakura interrupted, "I don't want to hear it, not here."

"Later then?"

"Yes."

And he was off, and that meant that only one person was left and that was Sasori. He walked into the room and gave Sakura that unfazed look he had yesterday as well. Sakura smiled gently as she watched him sit down across her, she was definitely developing a small thing for him.

"Hi, Sasori!" She exclaimed.

"Hello, Sakura." Sasori replied.

"Last one thank god!" Sakura whined, "feels like I've been sitting here for ages."

"It's been almost ten minutes." Sasori said, "not that long."

"Yeah well you try having ten different guys trying to impress you." Sakura mumbled under her breath.

"That would be a sight, now wouldn't it?" He said, "Sakura, do you like art?"

"Art?" Sakura repeated, "well.. I'm not much of an artist, but yeah it's something that I like to observe once in a while."

"Interesting."

"Why do you ask?"

"I'm an artist." Sasori answered, "I was going to ask you if you wanted to accompany me tomorrow to my art studio, we are having an art show."

"Wow, really?" Sakura said in awe, "sure! I'd love too.. I mean if we don't have a round scheduled tomorrow."

"You don't know? Rounds are every second day. We all have the day off tomorrow to do as we please."

"Oh that's awesome!" Sakura gasped, though she was pretty sure she would still be filmed and televised.

"I hope to see you then." He said with a small smile and then walked back off into the curtains.

"And now that is that!" Shizune said, emerging. "Boys, to the front please." Shizune said, the boys all stood in a line now, facing Sakura. "Sakura, we hope that you have made your decision."

"M-My decision?!" Sakura repeated, completely forgetting that she had a choice to make here. "S-Sure.. give me a sec.."

Sakura started at the left and scanned her eyes across to the right to decide who she was going to say no too.

On the left stood Kiba, Sakura wasn't really attracted to him in that way but she liked him as a friend, she would put him in the maybe pile if she could not find anybody else to eliminate. She did not want to lead him on, as she doubted she could acquire any feelings for him. Sometimes people just don't click.

Next to him was Itachi, and Sakura didn't even bother weighing his traits down for she knew that whenever she looked at him butterflies formed in her stomach so he was definitely staying. **Hottie! **Inner Sakura cheered.

Then came Naruto, Sakura knew that her friend had a crush on her all of the years prior and she didn't want to lead him on here, but he was one of her closest friends at one point, so she would spare him the embarrassment of eliminating him in the first round. Maybe she could find somebody else to hook him up with in return..

Gaara was next and Sakura recalled the events that had transpired earlier, she knew she should never physically threaten him again like she had done today, and maybe she should eliminate him for her safety. But something about him intrigued her and made her want to get to know what was underneath the clothes. No sexual pun intended.

Deidara stood next to Gaara and gave Sakura a smirk as her eyes landed on him, he was obnoxious, vain and.. well charming. Sakura didn't want to admit it but she kind of liked his attention, maybe keeping him around for a little longer wouldn't hurt.

Hidan was next and Sakura blushed again recalling what he said earlier, he was in the maybe pile as well. He made Sakura feel absolutely gorgeous but well.. his personality was not something that Sakura would really consider fit for her.

Sharky was next, a evil grin came across Sakura's features, she would never dream of going for Kisame in her entire life, but somehow she had grown fond of arguing with him. He would also go in the maybe pile.

Lee was next and Sakura had a feeling that she would have to let Lee go this round, for he was simply well not her type.

Sasuke was next, Sakura knew she wasn't going to eliminate him right now, it wasn't because she possessed any romantic feelings for him, it was simply because she wanted to hear what he had to say for himself. It was a whim.

Sasori was last and he was the only one who Sakura genuinely smiled at, he had already asked to hangout with her tomorrow and Sakura was lying if she said she wasn't excited.

She knew who she had to let go.

"I've um.. made my choice." Sakura said, looking at Shizune.

"Great, here." Shizune said rushing over to Sakura.

"What?"

"Your roses? You have nine roses and are to give them to those you wish to not eliminate." Shizune said with a grin, Sakura nodded, she thought she was just supposed to state who she was going to eliminate. This was going to be kind of awkward.

She started off at Kiba and handed him a rose, he grinned at her. She kept him around because she felt he knew that it wasn't going to work out with them, she liked him as a friend though. Next, she was blushing and handed Itachi a rose, when he made movement to grab it from her, their hands touched briefly and lingered over the rose.

"I'm honored, Sakura." He said politely, making Sakura blush even more.

Next she turned to Naruto and gave him a warm grin and a rose, he sported a grin as well and pulled her into a hug. She nervously turned to Gaara and handed him one as well, he didn't show any emotion in his face but he took it. Sakura then walked to Deidara, raising her eyebrow in a attempt to be the dominant one.

"Here." She muttered, handing him the rose. He placed his hand on her waist and pulled her close so that he could whisper something into her ear.

"I'll see you later, then, un." He whispered into her ear seductively, it sent shivers down Sakura's spine and she continued with her job.

"Um Hidan?" Sakura said, sighing. "Here." She said, passing him a rose.

"Knew it, pinky." Hidan said with a smirk, "my room or yours?"

"Oh god, no!" Sakura said, walking away from him and too Kisame. "Here you go, Sharky. Didn't think I was going to let you off the hook that fast now did you?" Sakura said grinning.

"Well, well, you proved me wrong." Kisame said, with a smirk.

Now the hard part was coming, Sakura saw Lee standing next to Kisame in the corner of her eyes and she looked at her feet as she walked by him and handed Sasuke and Sasori a rose.

"I've made my decision.." Sakura mumbled.

"Oh, ouch." Shizune said, "it seems that Sakura has chosen to eliminate Lee."

Deidara and Hidan roared in laughter and Sakura rolled her eyes at them, she walked towards Lee and gave him a small smile.

"I'm sorry Lee." Sakura started, "you seem very sweet and would make a wonderful boyfriend. Just not.. my boyfriend." Sakura said, with a reassuring smile.

"Sakura." Lee started, "you have broken my heart, but I will take that as a challenge to find a girl who will love me!"

"Yes." Sakura said, giving him another smile.

"Farewell then!" He said, before leaving the hall and the building presumably.

"And there you have it!" Shizune said, "Sakura has made her decision. Now all of you know that you have the day off tomorrow, and there is no elimination."

The group nodded and Shizune dismissed them, Sakura began walking towards her room, 'that actually wasn't so bad.' she thought to herself, suddenly in the midst of her thoughts she felt a arm wrap around her waist, before she knew what was going on she felt herself against something hard.

"I knew you wouldn't eliminate me, un." Sakura didn't even have to look at his face to see who it was, for it was the blonde Deidara, he was the only one who used 'un' after almost all of his sentences.

"Okay, Mr. High and Mighty." Sakura said with a snort, "can you let me go?" She said, trying to free herself of his grasp but it was to no avail. To think, she was almost at her room too.

"I was going out to get food, un. Was going to ask you if you wanted to come with?" Deidara asked her.

"No thanks, I'm not hungry." Sakura said with attitude, but at that moment her stomach had decided to growl. "Erm.. fine." She said with a blush.

"Perfect, un." He said, pulling her along with him to the lobby.

"I can walk on my own you know." Sakura said, attempting to remove his arm off of her.

"I like it better this way, un." He said with a smirk, "where do you want to eat?"

"I don't care." Sakura answered.

"Tell me or I'm taking you to Mcdonalds, un." Deidara said with a smirk, Sakura gave a scowl.

"How about that greek place?" She said pointing across the street, "you would never catch me dead at a mcdonalds. Do you know how unhealthy that is?!"

"I know. I heard your introduction earlier, un." Deidara said.

"Y-You did?" Sakura said, a little bit shocked to know the obnoxious guy actually remembered something about her.

"Yeah, you said you go to medical school, un." He answered, "come."

They arrived at the greek restaurant, ordered their food and ate with some chatter here and there, once they finished they left the restaurant and headed back towards the building.

Sakura discovered that maybe Deidara wasn't as bad as she had thought, he was actually quite fun to talk to when he wasn't being a jerk.

"So tomorrow one of my pieces is going to be presented at an art exhibit, un. Do you want to come with me?" Deidara asked her, Sakura gasped and realized that this was probably the same exhibit that she was going to with Sasori.

"Oh... Uh.. Deidara I'd love to but um.. Sasori already invited me to that exhibit... to go with him." Sakura mumbled.

"Oh, Sasori, un?" Deidara repeated, "that's fine then, I'll see you there."

"Dei-"

But he had left before she got a chance to continue, Sakura sighed. How had she gotten herself in such an entangled web, she was not supposed to make friends with these people she was supposed to enter this competition and exit.

So Deidara must work for Sasori then, interesting.

* * *

><p>Sakura finally made it to her room without any more interruptions, she took a quick shower and decided she would go to bed early tonight.<p>

'Maybe I'll go see Ino tomorrow after the exhibit.' Sakura thought to herself, 'or would that be televised?' Probably not.

*Knock* *Knock*

Oh for pete's sake.

Sakura annoyingly got out of her bed and threw the door open.

"What?!" She snarled, not bothering to look at who it was.

"Oh I apologize, did I bother you?" It was his angelic voice, it was the person that made Sakura melt.

"O-Oh.. Itachi.. come in." Sakura said blushing, "I'm sorry, I've just had one of those days."

"Understandable, there's a lot of pressure on you." He said, walking into her room and shutting the door behind him. Sakura walked over to her bed and crawled back underneath the blankets and getting in a sitting position.

"Um.. you can sit.." Sakura mumbled, blushing like always. He gave a half smile and sat down at her toes, it was fairly silent for a while but he broke it.

"Sakura, would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow evening?" Itachi asked her, absolutely gracefully.

"D-Dinner?" Sakura repeated, "s-sure.. towards the evening, yeah.."

"Excellent. Be ready by eight?" He asked her, she nodded in approval. "Then I'll let you sleep." Itachi said, getting up to leave from her room, Sakura got up again to see him to the door. Before leaving he turned around and Sakura who was not expecting that collided straight into him.

"Sorry.." Sakura mumbled, removing herself from off his chest. Ow, she mentally thought.

"It's my fault." He said, "I'll see you tomorrow then." He said, before placing a kiss on her forehead and leaving the room. The second he was gone, Sakura shut the door and jumped up and down in excitement.

"W-Wait.. what am I doing.." She stopped, thinking to herself. "It's just a game."

But she didn't think that of course, it was too late for Sakura because whether she liked it or not she was trapped in the game of love.

The worst part of it all? She wasn't sure which of the boys she even had feelings for.

* * *

><p><strong>Hehehe what do you think ? :$<strong>

**Okay this update was really soon , but umm can you guys please please review and tell me what pairing you want because the more votes I have the merrier!**

**Aside from that any additional feedback will be much appreciated :) **

**See you soon!**

**-Marron**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello my wonderful readers I bring you chapter three :) **

**DiizGiirlJess: No you don't have to vote every time, but you can always vote every time for who you want to be eliminated :) **

**Thank you everyone for your reviews and votes, don't worry I am taking them all into consideration and if I didn't write your pairing this chapter just be patient :) **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor the Bachelorette**

* * *

><p>The next day came almost too soon, Sakura was awoken from her sleep by loud banging on her door, she tried going back to sleep and ignoring it but it didn't subside. Grumpily she got up and opened the door, it was non other than Sasuke.<p>

"Good morning." He said, "get dressed." Sasuke ordered.

"Hm?" Sakura raised a brow, "for what?"

"I want to take a stroll with you, hn." Sasuke said, "get dressed now, I'll wait out here."

"I can't Sasuke, I'm busy." Sakura said, crossing her arms.

"Busy?" Sasuke raised a brow, "with what exactly?"

"With other things."

"One of the other guys?" Sasuke said, catching on very fast. "It won't take long."

"No thank you, whatever you have to say to me you can say it here."

"Sakura.." Sasuke said clenching his fists, "just come."

"No." Sakura said, shaking her head. Sasuke was beginning to get on her nerves now, barging in her room right in the morning and telling her what to do. "I don't see why we need to go out for this, you can just tell me what you have to say in here."

"Fine, suit yourself." He said with a glare, shoving his hands in his pockets and exiting the room. Sakura punched the wall in anger when he had left, way to ruin her day before it even began.

* * *

><p>After having breakfast, Sakura decided to explore the resort a bit. She wasn't due to go to Sasori's art exhibit till about three, so she had a few hours to herself. Maybe she would visit Ino before that as well.<p>

Sakura headed down from the third floor to the second and finally the first. What she concluded so far was that the third floor consisted of all the rooms and a kitchen, the second floor had a pool, a hot tub, a sauna and other water related activities and the first floor had a bar, a club, a restaurant and a gameroom. It was truly wonderful.

Sakura headed outside of the resort, but of course before she could do that she was stopped.

"Just where do you think you're going?" Hidan said, appearing in front of her. He was shirtless like always carrying around that so called make belief scythe.

"I'm going out, why does it concern you?" Sakura said with annoyance in her voice, she had a rough morning and just wanted to leave this place and go back to Ino, even if it was temporary. Hidan was the last person she wanted to see right now.

"Touchy, touchy.." He said, stepping closer to her. Sakura tried to inch past him but he blocked her way, she tried again but failed.

"Let me go! I have to go somewhere!"

"You can tell me, babe." He said, spinning her around so that her back was facing him and engulfing her into a hold from behind. Hidan's hands were around her stomach and he placed his head on Sakura's neck. "Come on, I can think of something fun we can do together.." He whispered into her ear, Sakura fumbled and tried to get out of his grasp but he was monstrously strong. "I hear there's some bitchin pool upstairs, shall we?"

"Let me go!" Sakura growled, "or I'll scream!"

"I have more than one way of silencing that scream." Hidan said, with a smirk. "Come on, we'll just go straight to the bedroom." He said, letting her go but grabbing a hold of her hand, he dragged Sakura into the elevator and once it was closed, Hidan pushed her roughly against a wall, and began places kisses down her neck.

"Stop!" Sakura cried, she was blushing a tiny bit because well Hidan was incredibly sexy and she couldn't deny that, but other than that every part of her wanted this to stop.

Hidan continued kissing her neck not noticing the elevator had opened, Sakura took this as her opportunity to escape this situation. She yelled help and hoped that the nearest person would hear her, lucky for her someone was there.

"What exactly are you doing?" He said, giving Hidan a death glare, "don't you know how to respect women."

"Fuck off, goth boy. I'm busy." Hidan said, in between kisses. Suddenly Sakura felt the weight of Hidan lifted off her and gasped at the sight before her, her savior was non other than Gaara. He had Hidan pinned against a wall, and was clutching his throat. Sakura rushed out of the elevator to the two boys.

"I'm sorry what was that?" Gaara said menacingly.

"Argh...! L-Let go, you fucker!" Hidan growled, Gaara choked him harder.

"Oh my.. Gaara stop!" Sakura said, placing her hand on Gaara's hands which were around Hidan's neck, trying to pull him off of it. "He's not worth it, stop!"

Gaara let go of Hidan and pulled his hands away from Sakura, he then angrily walked off in the other direction.

"Fuckin crazy, that guy!" Hidan muttered, he also grabbed a hold of his scythe and headed somewhere. Sakura took this as a chance to escape, and decided to take the stairs downstairs and out of this resort.

She entered a taxi, told the driver the address of Ino's house and breathed a sigh of relief, for she had made it. She had gotten away from the resort, even if it were temporary.

* * *

><p>After about twenty five minutes, Sakura arrived at her house, she smiled at the guards who let her in and she headed towards the main door, ringing it once.<p>

"Sakura!" Ino said, engulfing her in a hug. "Come in!"

Sakura followed Ino to the living room where they both settled on the sofa, it had only been two days since Sakura had left this place but it had seemed like it had been forever.

"Ino, what did you get me into!" Sakura wailed, "they're all so.. so.."

"Sakura, I know." Ino giggled, "they broadcast the show every day you know.. I'm pretty updated on everything."

"W-Wha..?"

"But Sakura, don't cry over Sasuke like that! He doesn't deserve that!" Ino said, waving her hand in the air. "He's a thing of the past."

"Sasuke? How did you..?" Then it hit Sakura, her confession session with Hinata and Tenten had been recorded as well, she blushed a deep pink in embarrassment. "Oh my god, that was aired!"

"Well duh." Ino snorted, "everything is, I saw it all."

"T-Till what part..." Sakura blushed.

"Well everything from the beginning to Itachi entering your room." Ino giggled. "Sakura, you're so innocent."

"Oh god, kill me now." Sakura said, burying her head in her hands. "Ino, what if Sasuke sees that?!"

"H-"

"He'll think I'm that same idiot from before, oh god!"

"Sak-"

"A-And.. Oh no! I was totally jumping up and down in joy when Itachi left my room."

"Sakura-"

"Ino, what am I going to do?!"

"Sakura! Would you please listen to me?!" Ino shouted, raising her voice. "Viewing the show is completely off limits for the boys and for you!"

"What?" Sakura blinked, "really?"

"Yeah, none of you guys are allowed to see it till the season is over."

"Why, me too?"

"Sakura, as time progresses and more guys will get eliminated, obviously they are going to film some things from the guys perspective too." Ino snorted as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh thank god." Sakura said breathing a sigh of relief. "So this isn't filmed right?"

"Hm? Our conversation right now? No clue." Ino gave a goofy smile.

"Well if the boys won't see this regardless... Ino I'm stuck.." Sakura blushed, "the thing is I've never had experience in this sort of thing..."

"I'm all ears, Sakura."

"I told myself I wasn't going to fall for any of the boys, or you know get close to anyone. But I mean.. Its kind of happening."

"Sakura, you know this is the game of love for a reason right? Every couple that has ever walked away from this show has ended up together for life." Ino said, "it's said to find your soulmate."

"But Ino... I'm conflicted. Like what if that's not even who they are? What if their just putting up a front for the sake of television?"

"Sakura, were you not listening to what Sasori told you." Ino raised a brow, Sakura narrowed her eyes a little bit at the fact that all her interactions with everyone were public. "You'll know! If you fall for someone and whether it turns into true love, you'll know!"

"I guess.." Sakura said, "isn't that a bit naive though?"

"Sure, but what can you do."

"Yeah.. so what's your opinion?" Sakura asked, "who are you rooting for?"

"Hehe.." Ino giggled, "that Itachi is fine."

"I-I know.." Sakura said.

"But I don't know, I can't really trust him just yet." Ino stated, "Sasori is also nice, but I don't know."

"Sasori..." Sakura trailed off, "yeah he's nice."

"I see no chemistry whatsoever with you and Kiba, nor with Kisame." Ino said, "and too be honest, I can't see you with Naruto."

"Oh I know.. Naruto and I are just close friends, he's loud, speaks his mind, out of control, you know. He needs a shy girl that will keep him in his place.. not someone like me." Sakura said, placing a hand behind her head and giggling. "You know.. I may have someone in mind for him." She said, placing a hand on her chin.

"Hmm?" Ino raised a brow, "who else was there? Oh yeah, that Hidan is a fox!"

"You don't even know what he tried this morning.." Sakura started, telling Ino about everything that had transpired in the elevator and how Gaara saved her.

"Oh my... well Hidan is hot, but I know what you mean." Ino said, "and Gaara is sexy as hell but I don't know he kind of scares me simultaneously."

"But there is something about Gaara, Ino."

"What do you mean?"

"Like I want to change him."

"...O_o..."

"Don't give me that look."

"Erm okay... who else... uh.. well I am definitely against Sasuke, no way Sakura. I think that just leaves the blondie, what was his name?"

"The blondie?" Sakura repeated, "oh you mean Deidara!"

"Right!"

"What do you think about him?"

"Well... he's kind of arrogant, but I mean I watched your little date yester-"

"That was not a date!"

"I'm neutral about him. Be careful."

"I will.." Sakura gave a reassuring smile, "say Ino?"

"Hm?"

"I'm supposed to meet Sasori at his art exhibit later today and well, do you want to come?"

"Sakura, you know how the public is."

"No! It's a closed off event, invite only."

"But won't they know we're friends then?"

"You disguise yourself." Grinned Sakura, "c'mon! Please! I'll feel a million times better if you're there."

"Well.."

"Please!"

"Fine, then."

"Let's work on that disguise, I know the perfect girls for the job." Sakura said, pulling out her cell phone.

* * *

><p>A few hours later the girls were good to go, Sakura had called Hinata and Tenten over to help Ino with her disguise. They had put Ino's hair into a bun and put a wig over it so that her hair now looked to be chocolate brown. Her features were disguised with lots of makeup so that she was virtually unrecognizable.<p>

"You're good to go." Tenten said with a proud smirk at her work, "I still can't believe your friends with Ino Yamanaka."

"You told these girls?" Ino said, raising her brow.

"You didn't know?" Sakura asked, "I guess they didn't broadcast that part on television then."

"Well you two better keep your mouths shut." Ino ordered, "don't want anyone finding out."

"Yeah, yeah, we know." Tenten said with a snort, "you two better hurry up. The art exhibit is soon."

"Oh crap, yeah!" Sakura said, slapping her forehead. "You two are more than welcome to join."

"Erm.. no thanks, I'd rather not." Tenten declined.

"N-No thank you, Sakura." Hinata said with a smile.

Ino and Sakura set off then, they decided to take an ordinary taxi rather than a limo or a car, for it would draw too much attention.

"The art exhibit is only a few minutes away." Sakura said, "so what's your name gonna be?"

"My name?" Ino repeated, "oh yeah, I forgot about that."

"How about Michiko?"

"Pfft no thanks."

"Kaori?"

"Sakura, no."

"Menma!"

"That's a boys name!"

"Luna?"

"Barf!"

"Ino, come on just pick a name." Sakura sighed.

"Yumi?"

"Fine."

"Okay, so I'm uh Yumi Takashi, if anyone asks." Ino said, "make sure you don't slip up!"

* * *

><p>They finally arrived at the art exhibit, many people stood outside in line waiting to get in. Sakura proceeded to do so as well but she heard a voice call her name, she turned and saw Sasori standing inside the exhibit and waving for her to enter, she did so and dragged Ino with her.<p>

"She's with me." Sasori said to the guard, who lifted up the rope and let both Sakura and Ino in.

"Erm, this is my friend.. Yumi." Sakura said pointing to her, "she's the one who entered me into this thing and well I wanted to bring her along."

"Hello Yumi." Sasori said, reaching out a hand, Ino reached her hand out and shook it, giving him a smile.

"Pleasure." Ino said, Sakura had failed to notice Ino going a little bit pink and that almost never happened.

"Wow, so this exhibit is actually yours?" Sakura said astonished, she wanted to break the ice between them.

"Yes, I own this place. Most of the art here is primarily mine with a few other exceptions." Sasori answered her.

"Yeah, Deidara told me he would be here as well." Sakura said, well truth be told he asked her to accompany him here but Sakura didn't have to share that with him.

"Yes, Deidara is a apprentice of mine. His speciality is sculptures." Sasori said, with his unfazed look.

"Is he here?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Yes, should be down in that area."

"Erm.. I'm going to go say hi, do you want to accompany me, In- er Yumi?" Sakura asked Ino, almost slipping up in the process. Truth be told, she felt a little bit bad for rejecting him yesterday, she thought the least she could do is go see his art.

"Um, I'm actually fine right here." Ino said, "these paintings are wonderful, the detail in them is amazing."

"Thank you, I painted those ones." Sasori said to her, "if you want to see a few more, I have some on the second floor."

"That would be amazing!" Ino exclaimed, Sakura gave them a grin and headed off into the opposite direction Ino and Sasori had been going.

Sakura had definitely noticed the way that Ino broke the ice with Sasori, she was so much better at conversing with people than she was. Sakura couldn't help but feel a little bit envious as she had felt a little bit sidelined.

She brushed it off as nothing and looked around for the loud blonde, and she didn't mean Ino. After about a few minutes of searching for him and no avail, she decided maybe he wasn't here and turned to leave. That's when she felt an arm tug her into an empty hallway, and a hand placed on her mouth, preventing her from making any sort of noise.

"Mphppm!" Sakura tried to speak, but couldn't. She turned her head and saw who it was who had pulled her aside, it was the person she was looking for. The grinning Deidara, he let go of her arm and removed his hand from her mouth.

"Hey Sakura, un." Deidara said casually, leaning his back against the wall and crossing his arms.

"What the heck?!" Sakura shouted, "why did you do that?!"

"Dunno... it was in the moment, un." He said with a smirk. "Looking for something?"

"Actually.. I was trying to find you." Sakura said with a small blush, "I wanted to see some of your art! Sasori told me you specialized in sculptures."

"Feh, if Sasori told you that why didn't you just get him to show you, un?" Deidara said with a 'hmph' motion.

"..-.-.. what's wrong with you?" Sakura said with a snort, "I wanted you to show me your art, gosh."

"Should've came with me then, un." Deidara said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Where is Sasori anyways?"

"He's showing my friend Yumi around." Sakura stated, "I told them I would be back after I found you."

"Hm, I see." Deidara said, "fine then, c'mon I'll show you, un." Deidara said, taking her hand and dragging her back into the lively crowd, his grip on her hand was rather rough but Sakura didn't want to complain for he already seemed annoyed. They stopped when they reached the end of the hallway. "There she is." He said, Sakura looked forward at what he had been talking about and gasped in awe.

"Wow.." She said, amazed at the sight before her. It was a giant bird that was made from clay and so finely painted that Sakura was sure that it was a real bird, "you really made that?"

"Yup, un."

"It's beautiful!" Sakura said, "absolutely amazing!"

"Thanks, un." He said with a proud smirk.

Sakura had never been too fond of art but this was just something that struck her as beautiful, it was so finely and so carefully created that Sakura felt like it would spring up and fly any second now. She wanted to stay and analyze the bird for a little longer, but she felt herself being pulled into another direction by the blonde.

"Where are we-"

"You'll see, un." He said, Sakura realized that the farther they walked the less people the encountered. Just where the heck was he taking her, he did a quick shoulder check and opened a door and entered a different room, pulling her with him.

"Wha-"

"Shhh.." He said, placing a finger on his lips. "We aren't allowed to be here, so quiet, un."

"Why did you bring me here?!" Sakura said in a hushed whisper, "it's a janitors closet for gods sake!"

"I wanted to say something, that I couldn't out there, un." He said, Sakura blushed taking the time to notice how close they were, the janitors closet was rather small, she was against a wall and he was hovering very close to her and leaning in for the ceiling was very low.

"W-What?!" She said again in another whisper.

"Sakura, you get beautifuler each time I see you."

"H-Heh...?" Sakura blushed, oh crap where was this going. Deidara was a nice guy, he was charming but Sakura wasn't sure if she had really developed anything for him. She admired his efforts but...

"I wanted to do something, un." He whispered, leaning in close to her, he was getting closer and closer and Sakura didn't know what to do.

His eyes were closed and his lips mere centimeters away from hers, she tried moving back but there was a wall. No where to run, she was trapped.

"D-Dei-"

"Shh.."

And that was it, his lips were atop of hers, this was Sakura's first kiss. She didn't know what happened to her, she had been dreading it but the second his lips came in contact with hers, that feeling was gone and she felt a sense of belonging and the feeling of being wanted. His lips were incredibly soft, and she loved the way they felt, one of his arms were around her in a protective way and his other hand was stroking her cheek. Sakura was stunned at first, just being mesmerized by the moment, but slowly she moved her hands to the sides of his head and began running her hands through his hair.

"Dei-" She said, breaking away for a second but he shook his head no and roughly crashed his lips atop hers again. Sakura wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss, pushing herself onto him, she didn't know if she was doing this right but she wasn't getting any complaints.

"What in the world?!" A voice said, the pair broke away from each other and squinted their eyes at the sudden burst of light that was now shining in the dark janitors closet. Sakura stood there absolutely horrified at the amount of people that stood outside of the closet, she buried herself into Deidara's chest to hide herself from the embarrassment.

To make things one thousand times worse Sasori was with Ino at the front of the crowd, he had that same unfazed expression, though his brows were a little bit furrowed.

"Oh god kill me now." Sakura said, she heard a smirk come from Deidara, how could one be proud of something like this.

"Can we get some privacy please?" Sasori said to the crowd, with the help of Ino they managed to disperse of the crowd and that only left the four of them. Sakura reluctantly came out of the closet, with Deidara following behind her with his hands in his pockets, still smirking.

"Saso-"

"Sakura, you should leave." He said with a hint of distain in his voice, "thank you."

"But-"

"Right now, please."

Sakura didn't say anything else, she headed for the exit of the exhibit with Ino, turning to look back, Sasori was saying something to Deidara who let out a laugh.

* * *

><p>"I can't believe you two made out in there!" Ino grinned, once the pair reached Ino's house again.<p>

"That was absolutely mortifying, I can't believe everyone saw." Sakura said, slapping her forehead.

"It'll probably be aired." Ino giggled.

"B-But we were in a closet..."

"You think they didn't have cameras in there?" Ino laughed, "obviously Tsunade and them knew that you were going to the art exhibit. Something was bound to happen so they placed cameras everywhere."

"Murder me." Sakura said, throwing herself onto the couch and not bothering to look up.

"But wow, you were just going at it-"

"Ino, stop!"

"Like wow, he was hook-"

"Ino!"

"I'm just saying, for someone with no experience you sure as hell knew what you were doing." Ino gave a proud smirk, "so Deidara, eh?"

"What?! No! I don't know!" Sakura shouted, "I wanted to get away from him but when he kissed me,I was enjoying it and next thing I know I'm craving for more."

"Hormones, Sakura."

"Did you see how Sasori was looking at me?" Sakura said with a wail, "how embarrassing must have it been for him, he was the one who invited me to the exhibit and I'm all up on Deidara."

"Hm?" Ino said, turning a little bit pink. "Yeah, Sasori seemed very friendly. I talked to him for quite a bit."

"I'll bet." Sakura said with a sigh, "I'll fix things with him later, I guess."

"Yeah, you have a date." Ino winked, "with a certain Uchiha."

"What time is it?"

"Almost five."

"I have about three hours to kill then."

"Perfect, I'll get you dolled up in ways that Hinata and Tenten could only imagine." Ino said with another wink.

* * *

><p>"Sakura, you seem a little bit out of it. Is everything alright?" Itachi asked Sakura politely from across the table, he had taken her out to an expensive restaurant that only celebrities like Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton could afford, Sakura had never seen something so upscale. He was also looking very handsome tonight, he was dressed in what looked like an expensive tuxedo, which made him look extra Uchiha like.<p>

Sakura on the other hand was wearing one of Ino's black evening dresses with her hair up in a fancy bun with two strands of hair on either side let out nicely in curls. Her makeup wasn't too flashy except for the bold red lipstick she wore to make a statement.

"Huh? Oh no, everything's fine." Sakura said with a gentle smile, he was so caring and perfect and beautiful and everything else, so then why was her mind wandering over to a certain red head from earlier?

She didn't know why but Sasori's face when he saw her with Deidara would not vanish from her mind, she knew she felt bad and had to make up for it as soon as possible, but this feeling would not go away.

"How was your day?" He asked her casually, taking a look at the menu then looking back at her. Sakura decided to be here in the moment rather than think about the events that transpired earlier, but that was easier said than done.

"It was good, I went to the art exhibit earlier with Sasori and then went over to my friend Yumi's house. How was your day?" Sakura answered.

"It wasn't too bad, Kisame and I hung around the lounge for most of the day. All in all, all I was waiting for was our dinner, Sakura." He said gazing at her.

"Oh um.. yeah me too." She half lied, she had been overjoyed when he asked her out but now she just wanted to go back to the hotel and crawl in her bed.

"So what will you have for dinner?"

"Hm? Oh I don't know.. I've never been to places like this." Sakura said with a small blush.

"Hn, yeah its one of the better restaurants in LA, father and I come on a lot of business meetings here and it was good to us."

"Oh I see, do you have a lot of business meetings?" Sakura asked, trying to make some conversation, the last thing she wanted was Itachi thinking that she was boring or uninterested.

He nodded, "yes, father and I run pretty much everything. Sasuke tries, but he is younger and has other priorities as well, so we manage most of it."

"I see.."

"Sakura, you were friends with Sasuke once were you not?" Itachi asked her, with that damn gaze that made her turn into goo.

"Y-Yeah, but that was a long time ago." Sakura stated, "say, I never saw you around back then."

"I went to a different school in another state at the time, that's where I met Kisame." Itachi answered, "out of curiosity and you have the absolute right not to disclose anything to me, but why did your friendship with Sasuke end?"

"Oh, well.." Sakura contemplated on what to say, she had no idea if the Uchiha brothers were close, so she couldn't exactly badmouth Sasuke, she decided to just brush it off. "It wasn't really anything, we just drifted apart you know? I moved away and well yeah."

"Hn, makes sense." Itachi said, taking a sip of his wine. Sakura couldn't help but notice how similar the Uchiha brothers looked, and how stupid she was not to notice it before. But from her various encounters with Itachi, she had already decided which of the brothers she liked better. Sasuke and Itachi may look alike but they were not alike simultaneously.

The waitress came to get their orders, Sakura ordered whatever Itachi ordered for she did not want to seem like an idiot, then there was an awkward silence while they waited for their food, with a little bit of small talk here and there. After about twenty minutes the food came, and twenty five minutes after that they had finished, paid and were on their way out of the restaurant.

"It's rather chilly isn't it, would you like my coat?" He offered her politely, she shook her head no but the goosebumps trailing along her arms and legs said otherwise, he draped the jacket around her shoulders lovingly anyways and they began their walk to the cab.

"Um, if its okay with you, could we walk to the hotel instead? I like late night strolls." Sakura asked, he nodded and they instead turned left and began walking to the hotel, which was only a few minutes away.

* * *

><p>Arriving at the hotel after a little while, she decided to end the night here.<p>

"It was fun I-"

"Let me walk you to your room." He stated, she nodded and he held his hand with hers and tugged her in the direction of the elevator. Sakura was a deep pink by now for she was being touched by Itachi, she could almost feel the goosebumps coming back. Arriving at her floor they walked in the direction of her room and arrived just outside of the door.

"Well that was nice, I truly had fun." Sakura said with a small smile, "I hope we can do it again."

"Yes me too."

He let go of her hand and pulled her into a small embrace and said good night and then began leaving.

Sakura watched him go and watched his movement, he was a genuinely nice guy and he was absolutely caring and sweet towards her. His coat was still draped around her shoulders and she blushed a little bit at the fact that he knew she was cold before she did herself.

Oh what the hell.

"Itachi, wait!" Sakura called, rushing over to him as fast as she could in her high heels. "You forgot something."

"Sakura, you can give me the co-"

But he was interrupted with Sakura crashing her lips on his lips and wrapping her arms around his neck, it was definitely a bold move on her part. Itachi actually seemed stunned at first, but placed his arms around her waist nonetheless and pulled her closer to him. Eventually they broke apart, as they needed the air.

"I-I just.." Sakura blushed, looking away from his gaze. He gave her a small peck and said good night after that, leaving her there on the third floor.

Sakura walked back to her room and collapsed against the door once she got inside.

**Whoa, where did that come from?! **Inner Sakura said to her, **that was absolutely brilliant! Two guys in one day, cha! **

But she did not want to think about it, instead she entered the bathroom and turned the shower on so she could be truly alone with her thoughts.

She had just made things about a thousand times more complicated with that move.

So if she was correct...

She had went on a date with Sasori..

Madeout with Deidara..

Been felt up by Hidan..

And kissed Itachi..

all in one day.

Yup things were definitely messed up.

* * *

><p><strong>Hehe what did you think? No round in this chapter, that will be the next chapter :) <strong>

**I know I keep writing DeiSaku and ItaSaku, I kind of have an addiction to those. Next chapter for sure will include other pairings .. GaaraSaku as I know a lot of you have been awaiting that.**

**As always, vote for who you want, vote for who you don't want and just give me a review in general :) **

**I'll see you guys soon!**

**-MarronB**


	4. Chapter 4

**Wow so many reviews I love it :D **

**So you guys this chapter kind of sucks LOL**

**It was rushed and I wanted to get it out of the way.**

**Once you read it you will understand :)**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or the bachelorette**

* * *

><p>Morning came much too fast for Sakura, she had trouble sleeping all night. Having recurring nightmares about Sasuke and then Sasori as well as Hidan chasing her. It was odd though, in all those dreams it was Gaara who had been her savior. She made a mental note to thank him later for helping her out yesterday.<p>

Sigh, this was her fourth day here. She wondered how long this thing was going to last anyways, but what she was dreading was that there was a round today and she had no idea who she was going to eliminate. She yawned, that was what the round was for, to help her decide.

Sakura got up and headed towards the shower, emerging about twenty minutes later after finishing all her routines. She noticed that there was a note on the floor of her room in front of the door, bending down to pick it up, she was a little afraid of what it may read.

_Sakura .. _

_Just letting you know in advance that today's round is going to be a little bit of a gameshow concept kind of thing ... don't stress yourself out too much because this is the easiest round of the show. No dates, no awkward moments, non of that. _

_Be ready by twelve, for that is when it will start._

_-Sincerely_

_-Tsunade._

"A gameshow?" Sakura repeated, "what the hell kind of round is that." She had thought it would be something more along of going on dates or something, she had already participated in that speed date round thing and had decided on eliminating Lee, who knows what this round would bring.

* * *

><p>Like always, around eleven o clock, Tenten and Hinata were at her door and it took them about forty-five minutes to glam her up so that she was gorgeous. During this time, Sakura thought she would get to know them better.<p>

"Do you guys have any love in your life?" Sakura asked them, whilst they were working on her. "I mean just curious.."

"I'm engaged to Hinata's cousin." Tenten said casually, "Neji is his name, head of Hyuuga Corp." She bragged.

"Hyuuga Corp?" Sakura repeated, astounded. They were a very famous company in LA that did god knows what, all she knew was that they were much more famous and expensive than the Uchiha Company and that was already very high. "So then Hinata..?"

"Yes. My father and Neji's father are head of it." Hinata said.

"Why aren't you..?"

"I-I chose a different path.." Hinata mumbled quietly.

"Oh I see, it must be so cool owning such a big company!" Sakura exclaimed.

"A-Actually.. I don't speak much with my family.." Hinata whispered quietly, but loud enough for the girls too catch it.

"Oh.." Sakura started, "I'm sorry."

"It's alright."

"May I ask why?"

"Father wanted m-me to go into the family business... but makeup and artistry was my passion.." Hinata answered, she looked to the floor as if she was ashamed of who she was. "We grew apart and n-no one made an effort to fix things.."

"That's horrible." Sakura said with sympathy, "does your cousin at least keep in touch?"

"A-At first he didn't speak with me... but we fixed things and are close now." Hinata said with a small smile.

"Don't worry Hinata, everything will work out, it always does." Sakura said with a grin.

"What's your story?" Tenten interrupted, "your back story?"

"Oh..." Sakura trailed off, "my parents are both deceased."

Hinata covered her mouth with both her hands and Tenten looked away.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled.

"It's alright." Sakura said, forcing a smile. "It's been a long time now, I've gradually learned to live with it."

"S-So then.. you lived with Ino then?" Hinata said, Sakura nodded.

"Ino's like my sister, I've known her my whole life."

"That's good then, to have somebody who cares about you that much." Tenten said, "so are you interested in any of the guys, so far?" Tenten asked Sakura, changing the subject. Sakura blushed a little bit in embarassment at her actions from yesterday.

"Well... I don't know." Sakura said, blushing.

"Oh come on." Tenten rolled her eyes, "none of them? C'mon if you had to pick right now, who would you want?!"

"Uh..." Sakura blushed, "I really don't know, Tenten!"

"Sakura!"

"I don't know! Itachi? Deidara? Sasori?!" Sakura growled, then covered her mouth when she had shouted too much. Tenten had a satisfied smirk on her face and for the remainder of the time, Sakura said nothing.

* * *

><p>Here she was again, sitting in that same room. Same arrangement of chairs, Sakura on one side, Shizune and a table in the middle and the boys on the other side. Sakura was dressed in a lavender sweater with jeans and some light makeup with her natural hair. She couldn't help but sneak glances at Sasori here and there, he wasn't looking at her at all though, not even once.<p>

"So!" Shizune started, "round two of this awesome game!"

"Get to the point!" Hidan growled.

"Er.. yeah..! Well let's take a look at last weeks votes again." Shizune said, pressing a remote control. The screen appeared behind her and everybody turned their heads to look.

It read what it had read last week.

_Audience Popularity.._

_Sasori, Itachi and Gaara: 1st place_

_Sasuke, Naruto: 2nd place_

_Lee: 3rd place_

"Now, let's show this weeks votes!" Shizune exclaimed.

_Audience Popularity.. Week 2_

_1st place: Itachi_

_2nd Place: Sasori_

_3rd place: Gaara, Deidara_

_4th place: Sasuke_

_5th place: Naruto_

"And let's combine that with last week to get our results!" Shizune exclaimed again, clicking another button.

_Audience Popularity Total So Far_

_1st place: Itachi_

_2nd place: Sasori_

_3rd place: Gaara_

_4th place: Naruto, Sasuke and Deidara_

"And aside from that, Kiba you are the one who the audience wants eliminated the most." Shizune said with a grin.

"Pfft, what did I do to them." Kiba muttered under his breath.

Sakura looked at the chart and couldn't help but blush, the audience definitely wanted her with Itachi that was for sure, she wanted Itachi as well that was also for sure. Sasori, she wasn't sure just yet.. and Gaara? That was kind of random, she mentally snorted.

"Where the fuck am I?!" Hidan growled, standing up and throwing a fit.

"Nobody likes you!" Naruto said, sticking his tongue out at Hidan. Hidan twitched a little bit and grabbed Naruto by the collar and furiously began shaking him.

"Not like your that popular yourself, fucker!" He shouted in between shakes.

"I'm on the l-l-l-list!" Naruto said whilst being shaken, "h-h-h-help!"

"Please stop, Hidan!" Shizune said, in a very worried tone as if she was about to freak out any second now.

"Feh." He muttered and threw Naruto on the ground and took his seat.

"So! That aside shall I explain this next round?" Shizune asked, no one interrupted her so she continued. "This round is loosely based off a game show, what you have to do is I will ask you a question about Sakura or about something else and you will give an honest answer. You boys will all be given a whiteboard which you write your answer on and then show it when I say times up. Understood?"

"What kind of round is this, un?" Deidara said, "I thought this was the bachelorette not family feud."

"Let me explain. This round will help Sakura see who knows stuff about her, took the time to get to know things about her or you know I'll ask you what your ideal date would be and stuff. It's just more compatibility stuff, I'm sure Sakura wouldn't want the second round to be going on dates, that fast." Shizune said a matter of factly.

"We've done more than go on dates, un." Deidara mumbled under his breath and smirked so that no one could hear.

"I'll pass you all a white board." Shizune said, giving everybody a white board and a pen. "Sakura, you will ask them whatever you want too know. When you feel as if you have enough information to make your decision, you can stop at anytime."

"O-Okay.." Sakura said shyly, she thought long and hard for a question then decided to just ask them what Shizune had said earlier. "What is your ideal date?"

All the boys began scribbling onto the whiteboard, some writing some simple words down other looking as if they were making intense drawings. When Shizune said times up, all of them turned their boards over. Sakura started at the left, carefully calculating her decision.

Deidara was the first one on the left, Sakura realized that he hadn't written anything down, rather he had drawn something that made her open her mouth in awe.

"My ideal date would be taking you to another art exhibit. You showed me that you know your art and the way you were fascinated by my sculpture was cute, un." He said with a proud smirk.

Sakura knew she wasn't going to be eliminating him anytime soon.

Next to Deidara sat Gaara, he turned his board around and revealed a single word and Sakura didn't understand what it quite meant, Gaara noticed her expression and opened his mouth to explain.

"A stroll on the beach." He said simply, "women.. so predictable." He said to himself.

He would stay as well.

Sakura shouldn't have even been surprised at Hidan's entry, it was a drawing of a stick man and stick woman in explicit positions - she blushed in embarassment as the woman was labelled Sakura and the man Hidan.

He was so eliminated.

Sakura met Itachi's trusting gaze and she gave him a brief smile before taking a look at what he had wrote down. It said: "Anywhere, for as long as I'm with you, I can enjoy whatever I am doing."

Aw, sweet.

"You're kidding right?" Sakura said, raising a brow and frowning at Kiba's entry. It said zoo, what kind of date would that be.

The audience didn't like him either, he would go in the eliminated pile.

It was no surprise to Sakura when Kisame's entry said swimming on it, of course typical shark behavior.

Naruto's entry said ichiraku ramen and Sakura couldn't help but give a small nostalgic smile at that, for that was the place in Carolina that they almost always went too, whether it be lunch or dinner.

Sasori's entry was blank and he claimed he didn't have enough time to jot something down, Sakura knew something was definitely up with him.

Lastly was Sasuke, he had drawn a money symbol and said some gibberish about how he would spend as many dollars as she wanted on her.

"Erm.." Sakura mumbled, it didn't take a genius to figure out who should be eliminated. Sakura just wanted this round to end so that she could go speak with Sasori and ask him what his problem was already, "I'm ready to make my decision."

Shizune raised a brow at how fast she had decided, but went to get her eight roses nonetheless.

Sakura hurriedly took the roses from Shizune and began her way around the room, Shizune whispered something in her ear about starting at the end today for dramatic effect, Sakura had a feeling she knew who she was going to eliminate.

She did as she was told and strode over to the right of the boys rather than the left, starting off with non other than Sasuke.

"Here." Sakura muttered, avoiding eye contact and handing him the rose. He reached out to take it but that was about it, Sakura hadn't forgotten his little fit from earlier.

Next was Sasori and it was much the same, Sakura gave him a rose and he took it avoiding her gaze, and not speaking a word. How had Sakura managed to mess things up this bad was beyond her.

Naruto gave her a wide grin and Sakura gave him a rose with another friendly grin, she had the perfect idea for what she was going to do with Naruto later, to avoid hurting his feelings.

"Sharky, for you." Sakura said with a smirk, "I would totally love to go swimming with you."

"Feh." He snorted, taking the rose from her almost roughly, "as if."

"Okay, whatever." Sakura snorted and continued her little walk, she gave Kiba a small smile that read 'i'm sorry' and continued past him to Itachi.

"Thank you." He said like last time, taking the rose from her and placing a kiss on her hand. "Free, later?" Sakura gave him a small smile and nodded.

Then there was Hidan.

"Couldn't get enough, eh Pinky?" Hidan said with a huge smirk, Sakura grimaced and almost regretted giving him a rose. "I'll see you in your dreams." He said with a wink.

"Uh, no thanks." She rolled her eyes, "Gaara." She said with a smile, "I wanted to thank you for yesterday, I never got the chance."

".."

"You saved me from..." Sakura said looking grimly in the direction of Hidan, "well if there's anything I can do for you just let me-"

"Something for me?" Gaara repeated, with a evil smirk. "Hn, actually there is."

"W-What..?" Sakura said, thinking along the lines of something that would make her mother would roll around in her grave if she knew. "I-I.."

"I'll come by your room later."

"Er... okay.." Sakura sighed, great.

Last but not least was the blonde known as Deidara, he had one eyebrow raised with that wide smirk he always wore. Sakura remembered the events of yesterday and turned red recalling it. She didn't think she would ever be able to look him in the eye.

"H-Here.." Sakura whispered, still not looking at him but handing him a rose. His hand lingered on hers whilst he took the rose and for a few seconds he left it there.

"We can have round two today, un." He said with a wink, making Sakura turn red as a tomato. "Hey you feeling okay, un?"

"H-Heehh..?!"

Shizune came to her rescue.

"Short and sweet, that was what this round was. The audience wanted Kiba eliminated and that is what the audience got." Shizune said with a large grin, "Kiba? Any last words?"

Kiba shook his head, knowing that this was coming in a certain way. He bid farewell and left the resort like Lee previously had.

"I want to give you all a heads up that the next round will start tomorrow and will consist of something... different." Shizune said, with a hint of joy in her voice.

"Define different?" Sasuke asked.

"Well these were preliminary rounds." Shizune started.

"Preliminary rounds? You don't mean... I thought this was what the rest of the competition was going to be like..?" Sakura asked in a confused tone.

"Nope. This was just to weed out some of the more weaker, unsuitable people for you. Tomorrow, the real competition begins." Shizune answered.

"So what is the structure for that then?" Sasori asked, Sakura was surprised that he had said something.

"Starting tomorrow, Sakura will go on a date and spend the day with each of you on your respective days. Depending on how it goes, Sakura can choose to give you a rose at the end of the date or maybe at the end of the round when all the dates have been gone on." Shizune continued, "this is where the real bachelorette competition begins. So far what you saw.. this was nothing."

"Oh kill me now." Sakura mumbled under her breath, she had thought this was how the rest of the competition was going too go! A round every two days with a bunch of questionnaires and stuff, but boy was she wrong.

"So, this round will be spread over roughly eight days for there are eight of you and you will all be granted a day with Sakura." Shizune explained, "I want you all to draw a number from this hat and call out when I ask for it." She then hurriedly headed to behind the curtain to grab a hat, she walked around the room getting the boys to draw a slip of paper from the hat. Once they all had drawn one, she went back to her position.

"Right then." Shizune grinned, "who has day one?"

"That would be me." Itachi said, Sakura tried to hold the grin down that was beginning to form on her face. She couldn't help but feel excited that she would get to go on a date with Itachi right off the bat.

"And two?"

"Over here, un." Deidara called, Sakura sighed, of course that would happen. She was wondering if this thing was rigged.

"Three?"

"Me!" Naruto called with a giant grin, Sakura also gave a smirk for she would put her plan in motion then.

"Four?"

"I have four." Sasori said swiftly, Sakura tried to smile at him but he didn't so much as glance in her direction.

"And five?"

"Five." Gaara repeated in a solemn tone. Shizune nodded and scribbled down that on her piece of paper as she had been previously doing.

"Six?"

"I have six." Sasuke stated, 'thank god' Sakura thought, she could prolong her date with Sasuke for she was dreading it.

"Sev-"

"I have it, you dumb bitch. Put me at last on purpose." Hidan snorted, throwing the piece of paper on the ground.

"Er.. and that would mean Kisame is on day eight." Shizune said with a satisfied look, "perfect! Eight dates spread out beautifully over eight days. Starting off with Mr. Uchiha." She said with a soft smile that accompanied a blush in Itachi's direction, "I wish you all the best. Get a good nights sleep, find something to do until your date and have fun!" She said, before bidding farewell and leaving the room.

"What the hell did Ino put me through?" Sakura said out loud to herself.

"Ino? You still talk to her?" Sasuke said, appearing next to her. Sakura's eyes widened in shock and she gulped.

"Er.. no." Sakura said awkwardly, "I said what did Shino put me through." Sakura said, reigning innocence.

"Oh okay, hn." Sasuke said, "can I talk to you?" He asked her, she shrugged and then nodded. He placed an arm around her shoulders and ushered her in the direction that led out of the building. "Why are you so angry with me?"

"You have the nerve to ask me that?" Sakura said, freeing herself from his grasp.

"Are you going to tell me or not?!" Sasuke growled, raising his voice.

"You haven't changed at all!" Sakura yelled back, "with that short temper of yours!"

"Sakura," Sasuke started again, lowering his voice. "I'm sorry, but please tell me why you are so angry?"

"Sasuke," Sakura began, this was exactly why she had realized that he would never change as a person. It was so obvious to her, but he hadn't a clue. "You are just.. not someone I'm interested in like that, nor someone who I see fit in pursuing a friendship with."

"You'd prefer somebody like Itachi, then?" Sasuke growled, "I saw your little date with him."

".. That is not what I meant!" She shouted, "why do you always have to do that?!"

"I just don't see why you're so angry with me?! You're the one who lef-"

"Get away from me." Sakura muttered, pushing past him and heading back inside the building. She hadn't realized it but a few tears had formed in her eyes and were threatening to fall, no she would not cry, he had made her cry enough when they were younger.

"Sakura?" A voice called her, but she did not stop to hear the person out for she kept walking hurriedly to her room. Sakura just wanted to get away and be alone, as fast as possible.

Reaching her room finally she slammed the door behind her and looked herself inside the bathroom.

"Dammit!" Sakura screamed, punching a wall and letting the tears fall. She didn't know why Sasuke bothered her so much, well she did but she preferred not to think about it. He had left her and Naruto when they were younger to go join the crew that bullied them, but that wasn't all. There was more to it, but Sakura was determined to block it out, for it hurt her way too much to think of it.

A knock on her door brought her out of her thoughts.

"W-Who is it..?!" She cried out in a more desperate voice than she had meant.

"It's Gaara." Said the voice from the other side, Sakura wiped away her tears and flung the door open, inviting him inside.

"Why are you here?" Sakura said with a few sniffles to keep her runny nose at bay, she hoped that Gaara hadn't noticed her current situation.

"I told you I would come see you earlier did I not?" Gaara stated, either not noticing her red nose and cheeks or simply choosing to ignore it.

"H-Hm..? Oh right.." She trailed off, she really was not in the mood right now to deal with anyones shit. She didn't even want to think about what Gaara had in store for her.

"Well.." He started, taking a seat next to her on her bed, "all I wanted was.." He said, edging closer to her, until she could practically feel him on her. Okay maybe she was exaggerating but he was pretty close.

"Y-Yeah..?"

"I want you.." He started, placing one of her hands on his abdomen, oh god she knew where this was going, he wanted to do something INDECENT with her, Sakura had just had her first kiss (kisses) yesterday, she could not and was not prepared for this.

"G-Gaara..?" Sakura choked on her spit, "w-wait..!" She said, removing her hand off of his abdomen. "I can't, that's not something I'm willing to do."

"You aren't?" He said, raising a brow.

"No, it's just I don't feel comfortable."

"Very well." He said, getting up off of her bed. "I just thought since you were a doctor in training maybe you could help. Nevermind, then."

"What?" Sakura blinked, "wait!" She shouted, grabbing a hold of his hand and pulling him back down onto the bed. "I-I'll help.."

"Why the sudden change of heart?" He asked her, with a deep stare.

"Erm.. I just uh.."

"...?"

"I um.. nevermind." Sakura felt her cheeks going red, "s-so what's up?"

"That scythe wielding freak scraped his weapon along my abdomen yesterday." Gaara said, Sakura swore she saw a smirk on his face. He did that on purpose didn't he.

"What?!" Sakura gasped, her voice instantly filled with concern. "You got hurt?! Show me?!" She said hurriedly grabbing his shirt and lifting it u to see the wound, realizing her actions a minute too late she quickly pulled away and blushed. "Er... sorry."

"Hn." Gaara said with a faint smirk, Sakura narrowed her eyes. She examined the wound nonetheless and with a few probes and pokes she confirmed it wasn't anything to serious, gave him an ointment and bandaged it up.

"I always make sure to keep a first aid kit handy, you never know." Sakura said with a smart nod.

"Smart, I'll give you that much." Gaara said, getting up to leave. "I should go."

"Hm?" Sakura sounded, she followed him to the door and gave him a small smile before he turned to leave.

"By the way, Sakura." He said in a taunting tone, "you don't have to worry about thinking I'm going to be intimate with you."

"W-What..?!" Sakura's eyes widened, she turned a very deep red knowing full and well what he was talking about. "H-Hey! You're the one who was coming all close!"

But he was gone, Sakura sighed and shut the door behind her. Finally giving herself a chance to relax in her own bed, she let her thoughts absorb her. Tomorrow would be the day that her eight dates would begin as well as the actual competition of the bachelorette, tomorrow was her date with Itachi Uchiha.

Itachi and Sasuke looked so similar but Sakura sure as hell knew there was a world of difference there.

Sakura didn't realize it, but she had been so consumed by her thoughts that she eventually drifted off into a sleep.

* * *

><p>A few hours later, Sakura awoke and turned to look at her alarm clock to read the time, it read seven pm, she wouldn't have known the difference between night and day for she hadn't bothered opening her blinds. She had a few hours left until bedtime, so she better find something to do.<p>

Itachi had asked her if she was free later so she had assumed that meant he would stop by, but Sakura had something to take care of before that. She quickly put her hair up into a messy ponytail and headed out of her room making sure she looked somewhat presentable.

Arriving on the second floor, she looked around for the person she wanted to see right now and she saw him in the far corner of the room in the semi-pool, semi-lounge area.

"Sasori!" Sakura called, with a wide grin. He turned to look in her direction and had a neutral facial expression.

"Hello, Sakura." Sasori said politely, shifting over on the couch so that there was room for her. "Sit."

"Thank you." Sakura said, noting the closeness of the two of them right now. "Erm.. I wanted to talk to you."

"Understandable." He said.

"Er.. about yesterday.." Sakura began, placing a finger on her cheek and blushing. "I.. I just wanted to make sure we were okay."

"Hm? Everything is fine Sakura, why do you ask?" He said in a convincing tone, but Sakura knew he was lying. You don't just avoid someone the way he was avoiding her and then say everything is okay.

"You haven't been yourself." Sakura said, narrowing her eyes. "So I just wanted to make sure everything was okay."

"Everything is fine." He repeated.

They were soon interrupted with a loud splash.

And then Sakura found herself pressed up against something wet.

"Gah!" She shouted, clearly startled. "What the heck?!"

"Guess who." A voice said from behind her, it was a male voice and she sure as hell knew who it belonged too. He covered her eyes in a manner similar to that of children, and not only that but he had pressed himself against the back of her head. To top it off, he was soaking wet presumably from being in the pool and her head was equally wet now.

"Deidara, what the hell are you doing?!" Sakura shouted, removing his hands from her eyes and standing up to face him. Instantly, she looked away and blushed.

He was shirtless with a pair of swimming trunks on. She absolutely refused to look in his direction though, for it would make things a thousand times worse, she knew it.

"Like what you see, un?" Deidara said proudly.

"W-What?!" Sakura shouted, "no! I mean.. I wasn't-"

"It's okay, you don't have to deny it, un." He said in an arrogant tone.

"Oh god kill me now." Sakura mumbled under her breath.

"I should get going." Sasori said, standing up. "I'll catch you two later." He said before leaving and Sakura could not help but feel bad once again.

"Why do you always have to do that!" Sakura yelled, poking Deidara in the chest but not glancing down for she may never be able to glance up.

"Do what, un?!" He said, grabbing a hold of her hand and caressing it. "I just thought it would be funny, un."

"Well Sasori didn't think so!" Sakura said, snatching her hand away from him and crossing her arms. "It was bad enough he walked in on us.. now you have to go and do that!"

"Hey, un!" He said, with a hint of anger in his voice. "Don't PMS on me, like that."

"Oh really? And what are you going to do if I do?" She said, with an arrogant smirk.

"Don't push it." Deidara said said in a dominant way.

"Or what?"

"Stop."

"Deidara-"

But she was interrupted by the force of his lips crashing down on hers, he placed his arm around her waist, having a firm grip on her so she wouldn't fall back due to the impact. Before Sakura could respond to the kiss or anything else, he pulled away.

"Care to repeat that, un?" He said, before walking away from her.

Oh fuck the world.

* * *

><p>Back in the safe setting of her room, Sakura swore she would never leave it for every-time she did, things got a thousand times worse and messier.<p>

Who did Deidara think he was kissing her like that? Again!

She hadn't forgotten the feeling and placed a finger on her lips, recalling the softness of his lips atop of hers. She shook her head in denial, it was Deidara for gods sake. She did most definitely not enjoy kissing him, now did she?

And then Sasori..

Her heart skipped a beat when she realized that Sasori may have witnessed that kiss and assumed something was going on with Deidara and herself. It was bad enough she overshadowed Deidara in front of him again, the fact that he may have saw the kiss would make things way worse.

Did she have feelings for Sasori?

It bothered her when she saw his reaction to Deidara around her, but she didn't know if she felt something for the red-head yet. He was calm and composed and Sakura sure as hell loved that on a guy, wait a minute..

Sakura loved that on a guy?

Since when had she started declaring types.

It was way too late now, she was definitely stuck in this gigantic spider web of affairs.

"GAH!" She shouted in frustration.

Sakura half expected Itachi to come see her that night, but he hadn't. After waiting for a few hours, she gave up and drifted off into a deep sleep. Half excited and half terrified for the next few days.

* * *

><p><strong>See what I meant when I said it was rushed haha .. so now that I got all that crap out of the way I can finally start devoting a chapter each to the dates!<strong>

**Next chapter will be all ItaSaku for the most parts, maybe I'll put in a few mentions of other pairings but thats it. **

**Also! When I chose the order in which the dates would occur I did it randomly hehe..**

**Um.. review and vote like always**

**Can we reach 40 reviews? Yes we can! **

**Woot!**

**-MarronB**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello guys!**

**First I'm going to answer a few reviews:**

**Lys777: LOL I think it's mostly to do with my little infatuation with him :P **

**sasusaku3623649: Haha for now I don't think so, the only side pairing I'm thinking of is NaruHina and I may bring a little ShikaTema in. But this is a Sakura centric story, so yeah :P **

**So I'm just wondering do people still want this story :( I don't seeing it being as popular as it was when it started !**

**Anyways regardless of that, here's the ItaSaku chapter everybody has wanted so bad LOL **

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or the bachelorette**

* * *

><p>Sakura was surprised to find that she had slept in till about twelve the following day, awaking to the sun shining brightly on her face, she got out of her bed feeling rather refreshed.<p>

Then it dawned on her that she was supposed to be on a date with Itachi today and it was well past noon, yet nobody had come to retrieve her.

"Hm? Maybe he forgot?" Sakura said to herself, Itachi hadn't come by last night after saying he would do so as well. This wasn't like him, Sakura thought. Although she hadn't known him very long so maybe he was like that.

Entering the bathroom and not emerging for another hour, Sakura took this time to make herself look pleasant just in case Itachi would show up. She decided to blow-dry her hair and leave it down natural and wear a simple red and white summer dress.

Sakura decided to skip breakfast for it was well past morning and she headed straight downstairs to the lobby to ask the receptionist if she knew where Itachi was.

Entering the elevator, she was warmly greeted by Naruto and Sasuke. Well scratch that, it was mostly Naruto who had engulfed her in a hug and been very happy to see her. Sasuke didn't say anything, silence.

She decided not to ask them if they knew where Itachi was, for it seemed like Sasuke already had a sour relationship with his brother and she did not want to make it worse.

Finally she reached the lobby and headed towards the receptionist.

"Hi, excuse me?" Sakura said to the blonde with short hair who stood at the desk. "Which room is Itachi Uchiha staying in?"

"Hm? Itachi? One sec.." The lady said before turning to her computer and punching a few things in. "Room 356. But I saw him leave the hotel earlier this morning."

"What?" Sakura said, raising a brow. "He left? Are you sure it was him?"

"Definitely." She said in a dreamy tone, "I could never miss Itachi Uchiha."

"Do you know where he was going?" Sakura asked, the receptionist shook her head, Sakura thanked her and turned around to leave. "Now what.." Sakura mumbled to herself, where was she to go. She did not want to seem all clingy and annoying and scare Itachi away or anything. But she didn't want to end up doing something else and then it would make it seem like she had forgotten about him.

"Maybe I should ask Tsunade... or Shizune.." Sakura said to herself, placing a hand on her chin and beginning to walk in a unknown direction.

"Oh wait!" The receptionist called after her, Sakura turned around around with a confused expression. "Are you Sakura?"

"Yes." Sakura answered, the receptionist walked towards Sakura and handed her a note.

"Er.. sorry I didn't know." The receptionist said blushing, "Itachi left this for you. Said it was only to be opened by you." She said, handing Sakura a small envelope then going back to her desk.

Sakura stared blankly at the envelope, and then slowly opened it, making sure not to tear the edges too much.

_Sakura_

_Sorry I had to leave early this morning _

_Uchiha Co. is hosting a ball today and I would be very grateful if you were too accompany me._

_Please be ready by five, I will send a limo to the hotel to pick you up._

_-Kind regards,_

_Itachi._

"A b-ball?" Sakura repeated, she gulped for she was not too fond of those kinds of things. "Convenient timing much?" She said to herself, sighing she headed back upstairs to go to her room.

It wasn't that she wasn't excited for the ball, it would probably be a lot of fun and she would get the chance to dress up which she didn't get to do too often. However, she was looking forward to spending an entire day with Itachi and only Itachi. Not a few hours at some family banquet or whatever.

Sighing again, she brushed it off and told herself she should be thankful for even a few hours for it was Itachi Uchiha who she would be spending them with.

"What am I supposed to do for four hours?" She said to herself, she wouldn't feel right hanging out with any of the boys for she did not want to seem like she was just trying to bag everyone. Ino was also out of the question, she was going to go out of the city for some interview. Then Sakura got an idea, she knew two girls she could call over.

* * *

><p>"You know all you would have had to do was page us." Tenten snorted whilst eating ice cream from Sakura's bed.<p>

"Page you? Oh.. oops." Sakura said, giving a small grin.

"Well its good we are here, now we can glam you up for the Uchiha." Tenten said with a wink, "Uchiha Co. ball eh?"

"Yeah, no clue what its going to be like though." Sakura stated.

"It's going to be like any other banquet probably." Tenten said, "well you'll have your hands full with both Uchiha's then."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked in a confused tone.

"W-Well if its a ball held by the Uchiha's... then would Sasuke not be there as well?" Hinata said shyly.

"Oh crap!" Sakura hollered, her ice cream falling on the floor. "I never thought of that! Crap!"

"Don't worry! What's the big deal?!" Tenten shouted, "why so tense? You'll be with Itachi!"

"I would have just preferred it if he wasn't there." Sakura mumbled.

* * *

><p>After talking for a little while longer and prank calling a few of the others, Hinata and Tenten got down to business and within two hours they made Sakura sparkle.<p>

Sakura had her hair up in a elegant bun, wore lavender lipstick with faint traces of eye makeup and a very gorgeous, very stunning sparkling long lavender dress. It had one shoulder strap and almost a bare back, topped off with a diamond necklace and diamond earrings she looked destructively beautiful.

"Wow." Tenten said, "you are going to shine, girl!"

"R-Really..?" Sakura said, blushing.

"Yes!" Hinata added.

"You should get going then, the limo will probably be here soon." Tenten stated, Sakura nervously nodded and headed downstairs.

Just as Tenten said, there was a man dressed in a very formal tuxedo awaiting by the door. Assuming for that to be the limo driver, Sakura went over to him. He led her outside to the limo and held the door to the stretched car out for her. Thanking him, she sat down inside.

"Hello, Sakura." His majestic voice was like music to her ears, he looked even better than his voice sounded. Dressed in a black and white tux with his hair neatly put back in a ponytail, Itachi Uchiha was the definition of sexy.

"H-Hi..!" Sakura said in a higher pitched voice than she had meant too, hoping he didn't notice her nervousness, she made herself comfortable in the seat next to him and looked out the window.

"You look stunning." He said in a gentle tone, "I don't know if I'll be able to keep my eyes off you the entire night."

Oh god did he have to say things like that to her? Did he not know that he was going to make her melt into a pile of goo.

"...Thank you." She whispered, her voice had clearly disappeared.

"I'm sorry, I know that we were supposed to spend the entire day together but father insisted I help with this." Itachi said, changing the subject. Perhaps noticing how nervous she had gotten.

"Oh no, it's alright." Sakura said, regaining some of her composure and speaking in a normal voice.

"Don't be nervous." He said, giving her a half smile. Itachi placed his hand atop of hers and squeezed it, "just stay by my side and you'll be fine."

Sakura gave him a nod, if only he knew that she was not nervous for all the crowds of people that would be there. She had been to countless of these things with Ino, that was not what she was worried about.

She was worried about what would happen to her if she stayed with him any longer.

"We are here, Mr. Uchiha." The limo driver said, Itachi gave him a nod and proceeded to get out of the limo, holding the door open for Sakura.

Sakura made her way out of the limo, taking Itachi's hand as he held it out for her to make it easier for her to get out. Not letting go of his hand for he held it in a firm grasp, he led her inside the massive banquet hall that faced them. As expected, there was a mass of paparazzi.

"Mr. Uchiha, is that your girlfriend?!"

"We are aware you are presently on the bachelorette, what do you have to say for that?!"

"Are you two serious or just a fling?!"

"What do you have to say on the status of your relationship?!"

"Just ignore them." Itachi whispered in her ear, pulling her closer to him and walking forward. She couldn't help but smile at the closeness of them, finally they reached inside the banquet hall away from the paparazzi and Sakura's eyes widened.

This was bigger than any banquet hall she had ever been in!

There were at least five-hundred guests here, most of them looked similar to Itachi, Sakura guessed they were mostly Uchiha's. Sakura spotted a few celebrities too, but that was nothing new to her. Itachi still holding onto her hand, led her to their seat presumably and being the gentleman that he was he pulled Sakura's chair back for her and then sat down.

"This place is amazing." Sakura said in awe.

"Yes it is." Itachi stated, Sakura snuck a glance at him here and there to keep herself sane.

"Itachi, I see that you have arrived." A male with a resemblance to Itachi said from across the table. There was a beautiful woman next to him with onyx hair and dark hair just like Sasuke's.

"Hello father." Itachi said blankly, "mother."

"And who is this beautiful woman with you!" His mother exclaimed turning her attention to Sakura.

"This is Sakura." Itachi said in a monotone, judging by his tone Sakura could tell that he was not very close to his parents. It seemed as if he was simply on a formal basis with them.

"She's the same Sakura I used to be friends with." Another voice said, hesitantly Sakura turned her head and just as she had suspected, there stood Sasuke dressed in a tuxedo, looking nothing less than fabulous.

"Oh!' Mrs. Uchiha said, placing a hand on her mouth. "I remember now!"

"Sakura, it's a pleasure to meet you." Mr. Uchiha said, reaching a hand out, Sakura politely shook it.

"You too, Mr. Uchiha." Sakura said politely.

"I must say Itachi has got himself a beauty." Mr. Uchiha said.

"Oh we aren-" Sakura said, but unfortunately she was interrupted.

"I'm glad you sent him to the competition, Fugaku! Otherwise he may have never found a girl with his workaholic habits." Mrs. Uchiha said, crossing her arms.

"Yes, you are right Mikoto." Mr. Uchiha said, "well I hope you have a pleasant evening than, Sakura. If you'll excuse me I have to go greet some more guests." He said politely before leaving, his wife hurriedly followed him leaving only Itachi, Sasuke and Sakura at the table.

"Sorry about that." Itachi said under his breath so only I could hear, Sasuke was sitting across the table, but Itachi definitely did not want him to hear. "My parents aren'-"

"It's fine." Sakura interrupted, "They're parents, I get it." She gave a small smile, reminiscing the few memories she had with her own parents. "So umm.. not to be nosy or anything, but I take it you aren't very into relationships, judging by what your mother said?"

"Hm?" Itachi said, sipping some water from a glass. "Well, I have had a few flings here and there but nothing serious, no."

"I see.." Sakura mumbled.

"I guess from the parental point of view it was logical of my parents to enter me in this competition, in hopes that I may charm the woman at hand." Itachi said with a smile. "I mean I am thirty after all." He said with a small grin.

"Charm the woman at hand?" Sakura repeated, raising a brow. "So I'm just some prize?" Sakura said accusingly, maybe he hadn't meant to offend her, but somehow she had taken offense to what he said. The way Itachi spoke, he made it sound like Sakura was just there so his parents would be satisfied, they knew he was charming and Sakura had fell right into the trap.

"No Sakura, of course not." Itachi answered, grin disappearing from his face. "I did not mean-"

"Oh save it." Sakura interrupted, "I'm stupid for actually falling for your crap." She added.

"Sakura there's no-"

"Excuse me, I'll be back." Sakura said, before leaving for presumably the bathroom.

Itachi placed a hand on his forehead and sighed, he could feel a gaze staring at him and he looked up to find his brother staring at him with a triumphant smirk.

"Screwed that up pretty nicely, eh brother?" Sasuke said mockingly, "Sakura isn't stupid enough to fall for your crap."

"Sasuke, when you know nothing of the situation at hand, I would advise you to stay quiet." Itachi said warningly, "I'm not playing around with her."

"Hn, right." Sasuke said.

Itachi shot him another warning look but chose to stay quiet.

* * *

><p>Sakura had come back after about ten minutes and then Mr. Uchiha had taken the stage and thanked everybody for attending, said some stuff about Uchiha Co. and yada yada yada.<p>

"Now, I would like to formally say that this dance floor is open for the evening. Please help yourself to the food and remember do not drink and drive." Fugaku stated, "now if you will join me in having this dance... Mikoto." He said to his wife, before taking her hand and leading her to the dance floor.

A slow song began playing and a few more couples slowly left their tables to go dance to the music together.

"Sakura." She heard his voice, "may I have this dance?"

She didn't want too, not right now. But she had no choice, she would make him look like a fool in front of many people, one of them being Sasuke. Sakura took Itachi's hand as he led her to the dance floor, Itachi placed one hand on her waist, pulling her close and taking her hand in his free hand. Sakura placed her hand on his shoulder/chest area and they slowly began swaying to the music.

Itachi leaned in close, "Sakura, I'm not joking around with you." He whispered in her ear.

"How do I believe you?" Sakura whispered back, avoiding eye contact. "You said it yourself, you charm people."

"You're just going to have to trust me." He said, "look at me."

But she avoided his gaze, for she already knew what would happen if she were to make eye contact. Unfortunately for her, Itachi tilted her chin in his direction and their gazes met.

"I would never lie to you about something like that." He stated, Sakura held his gaze and tried to find out if he was lying or not.

"I know." She mumbled, closing her eyes and leaning forward to kiss him. Itachi met her lips halfway and pulled her closer, deepening the kiss. This was different from her kisses with Deidara, there was a spark there, yes. But that may or may not be lust, but when she kissed Itachi she felt like that was where she was truly meant to be, dancing with this man in front of hundreds, kissing him like he was hers to keep and being there with him and only him.

Sakura broke away from him and blushed, avoiding his gaze once again. They continued to dance for quite some time, before Sakura complained of her feet aching and taking a seat back at their table. Itachi had gone off to discuss something with some famous business man, leaving Sakura alone temporarily at the table with Sasuke.

"Nice show you put on there." He stated.

"That's none of your business." Sakura retorted back, "why are you just sitting here anyways? Go do something."

Sasuke gave a smirk before getting up from where he was and taking the seat next to her.

"Sakura tell me..." He started, "after all this time, have you really gotten over me?" He said proudly, "I mean you kissing my brother like that, makes me wonder."

"You're disgusting." Sakura said angrily, "trust me when I say this, I feel nothing for you!" She exclaimed, although her tone didn't sound convincing to say in the least.

"Oh really, hn?" He said proudly, "prove it."

"Prove it?" She repeated, raising a brow. "And just how am I supposed to do that?"

"Kiss me and say it means nothing." Sasuke said with a smirk.

"I-I'm not..! I'm here with Ita-" Sakura stammered, "no!"

"Fine, then I won't believe you until you do." Sasuke said, provoking the fire in the pinkette.

"I don't care." She lied.

"Sure you don't, you're probably still so in love with me, we both know it."

"I'm not!" Sakura growled, "how many times do I have to tell you t-that?!"

"Prove it."

"Argh!" Sakura growled.

"Sakura, face it." Sasuke started, "you're the same stupid idiot you were eleven years ago. It's no wonder your parents abandoned y-"

But he did not get to finish his sentence, for a punch was landing square on his jaw, and it was non other than Itachi who had been the sender of that punch. The entire hall turned silent to observe what was going on, Sakura felt as if time had frozen. She could not comprehend her surroundings, everything was slowly beginning to be a blur. All she could focus on right now was Sasuke angrily glaring at Itachi with a bruise beginning to form on his face, and Itachi... Sakura had never seen him display any sort of emotion before, for he always was wonderful at keeping them concealed. But right now, his face displayed all the signs of anger; furrowed brows, a scowl and his fists were clenched.

"How dare you, you fu-" Sasuke started, but Mr. Uchiha had rushed to the scene and tugged him by the hall to take him out of the hall presumably. Another man had grabbed a hold of Itachi and dragged him in the similar direction, Sakura was stunned for a moment but regaining her composure she quickly followed them in their direction.

Once outside of the hall, Mr. Uchiha threw Sasuke aside with such force that he went tumbling on the ground. Itachi shook himself free out of the other man's grasp.

"Just what the bloody hell do you think you two are doing!" Fugaku exclaimed, "there are hundreds of people in there, what do you think they will think when they see my sons fighting like how you are doing?!" He growled, "why did you punch him, Itachi?!"

"Father, Sasuke needs to learn how to speak." Itachi stated with a hint of anger in his voice, "I will not tolerate anybody talking to Sakura like that, more or less Sasuke."

"Right and punching me in front of everyone was such a good idea?!" Sasuke growled, "what did I even say that was wrong?!"

"Enough!" Fugaku interrupted, "Sasuke, control your tongue. And Itachi, I expected better from you. You know very well how important this ball is yet you chose to make a scene, regardless."

"Father, how can I expect you to understand?" Itachi said coldly, "for someone, who business means everything too, I expect no less."

"Sasuke! Itachi!" Mikoto said, rushing over to them. "What is going on here?!"

"Nothing mother, Sakura and I were just about to leave." Itachi muttered, before taking Sakura's hand and dragging her almost forcefully in the direction they had came. Before anybody had another word to say, the pair were gone.

* * *

><p>It had been almost a half hour now since the pair had entered their limo again, Itachi had not spoke a word since and Sakura hadn't either. She presumed they were not going back to the hotel just yet since they would have arrived there a long time ago by now, finally mustering the courage she decided to speak.<p>

"Erm.. Itachi..?" She said quietly, "are you alright?"

"Yes."

"You didn't have too.." She mumbled, looking away.

"Sakura, don't be foolish." Itachi started, his frown never leaving his face. "I can't tolerate somebody talking to you like that, not in front of me."

"Itachi.." Sakura mumbled, "thank you then."

"Hn."

Then it was back to silence, Sakura had wanted to ask him so many more questions but she knew that now was not the right time to ask him. He seemed to be a little bit on edge and she did not want to provoke him, although he would never behave rude to her in the manner that Sasuke had.

So it was true then, Sasuke had not changed at all. If she was being brutally honest, she was hoping for him to have changed even a little bit, but what he said to her today proved that nothing of that sort had occurred.

"Sakura?" He spoke up, she turned to gaze him and nodded. "May I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"When Sasuke had said that your parents abandoned you, what did he mean?" He asked her, Sakura looked away momentarily, she knew that she would have to recall this sooner or later. She had always avoided this topic for the last eleven years whenever she could, for it was too painful to think about. But right now it felt like telling Itachi was the right thing to do.

"My parents were killed in a car accident when I was twelve." Sakura began, "but... my biological parents are alive." She let out, "T-They.. they gave me up when I was five."

"Sakura.." He said, Sakura had found herself beginning to shake a little bit. Itachi edged closer to her and placed an arm around her and tightened his hold, "it's alright."

"It's not something I like to think about.." Sakura said barely above a whisper, "the fact that your parents didn't want you... the fact that you were not good enough for them.. the fact that they never once tried to get in touch with me, it hurts."

"I'm sorry." He said, placing a kiss on her forehead.

"It's okay." She gave a small smile, "I just wish Sasuke hadn't used it against me like that. I told him when I was younger, and well... he's used it against me ever since."

"Sasuke doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut." Itachi said angrily, "I apologize on his behalf."

"It's alright.." Sakura said, "you don't have too.. But.. thank you. Nobody has ever stood up for me like that before."

"No problem." He mumbled, placing his head atop of hers and staying in that position for a while.

At that moment if anybody had asked Sakura what she was going to do, it probably would have been something along the lines of forfeit the bachelorette and go live with Itachi. But alas, her life was not that simple.

"Oh!" Sakura said suddenly, breaking away from his embrace. "I have something for you."

"Hm?"

Sakura gave him a grin before handing him a rose, he gave a half smile and then took it.

"I'm honored every time."

"I know this date was kind of..." She trailed off, "but I love being in your company. You make me want to be around you all the time, as corny as that sounds." Sakura grinned.

"You're beautiful." He said, before tilting her chin up and swooping down on her lips. Sakura let herself fall backwards with Itachi right on top of her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and dug her hands into his hair as he moved away from her lips to trail kisses down her neck to her naval.

"M-Mhmm..!" She moaned. Itachi tugged at her dress strap and Sakura let it fall to the side, he gently tugged at the dress, pulling it down so that it revealed her lacy black bra. When Sakura felt Itachi's hands tugging at her bra, she blinked back into reality and quickly pulled her strap back up.

"Sakura..?"

"I'm sorry.. I just.. I'm not ready.." Sakura mumbled, Itachi slowly removed himself from atop her and readjusted his tux.

"It's alright, I don't want to pressure you." Itachi said reassuringly.

"Thank you." Sakura grinned.

Sakura was almost absolutely sure that she was falling in love with him, and she did not want to be with anyone else.

If only she knew what tomorrow would bring.

* * *

><p><strong>Steamy eh ;) <strong>

**So anyways that was ItaSaku .. tell me what you thought haha**

**You know whats funny, originally I didn't even like ItaSaku that much, but after writing this chapter I think I hooked myself onto them :P**

**But yeah.. next chapter is DeiSaku so yeah :P **

**Review plz**

**-MarronB**


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